Paul Jacobs, vice president and general manager of Jacobs Media, advises radio there is an opportunity to generate huge revenues due to one of our competitors changing their business model.
Everyone in radio is tired of being battered in the press for being part of "old" media. Maybe another word for "old" is "over," meaning that in some pundits' minds, radio's relevance in moving forward is a thing of the past.
While we'll grant that radio's luster has faded, the 90+% cume figure certainly shows relevance. The same case can't be made for newspapers. In the past two weeks, the Tribune Company has filed for bankruptcy, and our hometown newspapers – The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News have announced that their business model has failed and they will only provide home delivery on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. During the other days of the week, Detroiters can buy a scaled-down version of the paper on newsstands or subscribe to the digital edition of the paper. In other words, the system that has served them well for more than a century has gone belly-up, and they need to make major adjustments in order to stay in the game.
While it's easy to write off the demise of Detroit's two daily papers as a symptom of the major economic trouble Southeast Michigan is facing, the issue is much larger than that. And radio needs to not only understand the implications, but also the opportunities this presents:
1. Adapt or die. The newspapers realize they can't keep going down the same path. Economic, technology, and generational forces are working against them.
The Detroit experiment is a canary in a coalmine, and is probably the tip of the spear – expect more to follow. Radio needs to heed this warning as well. Getting quality, branded station content on web sites, in iPhones and other mobile devices, HD Radio and more is paramount to the industry's long-term success.
2. Think multi-media. The newspapers no longer view their web sites as online editions of their print editions. They are arming their reporters with video cameras and will provide significantly enhanced content online that matches consumer needs. We know from our Tech Polls that video is a key reason why consumers go online, and its proliferation is stunning. Radio cannot afford to limit its digital efforts to audio-only, unless it wants to shrink further into irrelevancy. We need to arm our street teams, morning shows, and other jocks with video cameras to record events, listeners, and more. We need web cameras in the studio. We need to invite the audience to submit vids. We are no longer merely "theater of the mind."
3. THIS IS A HUGE REVENUE OPPORTUNITY FOR RADIO. Think about it – the newspapers in Detroit won't be delivering four days per week. Sure they will be selling online ads, but what are advertisers going to do to get their message in front of hundreds of thousands of consumers in a creative way? That's right – radio. This is our time to step up our efforts, position against newspapers, tout our strengths, and develop competitive multi-media solutions. We are witnessing the demise of one of our major competitors. And the timing couldn't be better.
This isn't rocket science. It's Radio 101. Great local compelling content. Creative, aggressive sales staffs. Huge cumes that are easy for advertisers to target. Low production costs. Multi-media solutions.
It's time to go for it.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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I think this whole concept of “look how bad the newspaper business is doing” is so typical of the radio mentality. Pointing at another industry’s problems is not going to solve radio’s issues. How many years did radio attempt to siphon more advertising dollars from the newspaper business, and how successful was that?.
The newspaper business has it’s own issues, but radio lacks the longer has the infrastructure to take advantage. It might be a good time to build some creative partnerships with the newspaper business,providing news, special investigations, and promotions which both medias can profit from.