Radio and Internet: Together Again?
Steven Hodson over at the Inquisitr and Doc Searls brought up a good point yesterday as he waxed about the impending doom of the print and over-the-air media:
One of the points Doc made was that for much of history of both industries newspapers owned radio stations. This all changed however when the FCC changed the regulations and prohibited that kind of ownership.
That however was back in a time when both industries were more the most part in their golden era as businesses. The idea was that it was wrong to let one buy out the other and as a result consolidate all the news distribution. It was felt that if such a consolidation of news providers did happen it would be detrimental to the public as there would be less choice of where we got our news, and to a certain extent – entertainment in general as well.
But a lot has changed since those FCC regulations were created.
At nearly every public appearance I’ve made in the last couple years, it seems I’m always asked for some sort of opinion on the future of traditional media in America, whether it be in the context of a former newsprint consultant or as a new media journalist. It’s been made 100% clear to me that these newspapers we’ve come to know and love over the last hundred years or so are forever doomed.
The reasons for this are legion, but one of the most succinct explanations has to do with the fact that every news organization, be it radio, TV or print, doesn’t compete with only the other local news vans in a fifty-mile radius, but every kid with a WordPress installation is a potential rival.
In short, they’re all competing on a global scale, and that’s why (with their bloated budgets and headcounts) they will all ultimately fail.
In the context of the posts from Steven Hodson and Doc Searls, though, it doesn’t make much sense why we’re chaining both hands behind their backs while we as New Mediaists beat the crap out of them. Let the free market decide – as bloggers, we routinely launch and fold audio and video podcasts as it’s convenient. Why, then, shouldn’t the two or three remaining newspapers with large enough lines of credit not be allowed to buy or merge with radio entities?
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