And to refer back to the title of my post back in April, has it come crashing down to Earth like a huge white elephant, or elegantly applauded in as yet another Apple master stroke?

Before I answer that I’ll come clean and admit that I got one on the day they launched.

The Good

1- They are an extremely good presentation tool. Visually everything just comes to life on the screen. Keynote (Apple’s version of PowerPoint) can do some wonderful things and smart Australian companies will be working on some presentations for this tool and rolling them out to their sales force as I write this. If (like real estate agents) you’re presenting one-to-one, or one-to-two, there’s no better tool.

2 – The size “just works”. I was struggling to see where it would fit in the market if you already had a small laptop and an iPhone, but as soon as I saw one I instantly got it. The size is perfect. It’s not (as I feared) just a laptop without a keyboard. It’s small and slim enough to be a genuinely different product.

3 – As with all Apple products, it’s intuitive. It’s interesting that many of Apple’s products don’t even come with an instruction manual.

4 – It’s not all about fancy games and funky Apps. This thing has got some business grunt. Apps I downloaded on day one included; Pages, Numbers and Keynote (Apple’s version of Microsoft’s Word, XL and PowerPoint), as well as PDF Viewer, GoToMeeting and an App called DocsAnywhere, which enables you to sync the documents on your PC or MAC with your iPad, via iTunes.

5 – For the iPhone owners amongst you, some of the features you already know and love just work much better on the bigger version.

6 – It’s fast, particularly in WiFi mode, but it seems pretty slick in 3G as well.

7 – Battery life, the Achilles heel of the iPhone, thankfully the iPad doesn’t suffer the same problem.

The Bad

1 – You can only do one thing at a time and can’t jump around from one application (or program) to another like you can in Windows. If you want to quickly dive out of “something” to do “something else” for a few seconds, you can’t without closing the program you’re in.

2 – You have to get the WiFi/3G version. If you get the cheaper WiFi only version you’re wasting your money, as the device will not be anywhere near as mobile as you need it to be. Think iPod Touch (WiFi only) versus iPhone (WiFi/3G), there’s just no comparison.

3 – Touch screen keyboards are just not that great.

So, the verdict? For this industry I think they’re a great investment for an agent, assuming that you (or your business) is prepared to work hard to create the tools that will make the iPad really blossom.

A win for Apple I think.

The Star Wars movie saga  featured the Jedi, who use the Force for good, and the Sith, who use the dark side for evil in an attempt to take over the galaxy.  In the original Star Wars movie the Sith had control of the Galactic Empire. Believing themselves invincible they built the Deathstar to literally crush any opposition still remaining to their absolute domination of the Galaxy. The upstart Rebel Alliance did not have the firepower of the almighty Empire but what they lacked in firepower they made up for with cunning and skill to win the first round in the saga.

The real estate advertising market plays the part of the Galaxy that everyone is fighting for in this story and who can better fill the shoes of the Galactic Empire than Newspaper Advertising.  Up to 10 years ago there was only print as an option for agents to use and the Newspapers ruled the Galaxy with no fear at all. Then along came the internet and from that sprang the Real Estate Portals who are playing the part of the Rebel Alliance. In comparison to the traditional media organisations the portals were comparatively light and nimble and who took the fight to their lumbering foe in guerrilla fashion.

It did not take too long before the Rebel Alliance started making inroads against the Galactic Empire and the war was on.  The battle raged and in the process the Rebel Alliance destroyed the Deathstar and in the process showed the Galaxy that the Empire was able to be defeated.

In the past few years we have Newspapers losing their aura of invincibility for the Real Estate advertising dollars to the new boys on the block  the Real Estate Portals who are fighting way above their weight class.  However just when the portals were getting comfortable with their gains the Empire Strikes Back!

The movie second Star Wars movie,  The Empire Strikes Back starts with Galactic Empire recovering from recent defeats in the original installment and attempting to drive the Rebel Alliance forces back out of the Galaxy and recover what they consider is rightfully theirs.

News Limited are about to launch a fight back against the real estate portals claim on their galaxy, the real estate advertising dollars. Apparently one of the first strikes might be News Limited to stop the realestate.com.au branding on their property pages unless they start coughing up some serious dollars which REA are not prepared to do.

Another strike which is due for release very soon is the “For What It’s Worth” campaign which focuses on promoting print advertising to property sellers. The centre of the campaign is an 18 minute video that attempts to pass itself off as an independent advice to sellers on using print advertising when selling their house.  At a recent launch we were only allowed to preview just a short clip from the video which should be out very soon.

The premise of the video is that 5 or 6 experts discuss the advantages of using print from their perspective through an evidence based presentation.

The four key points the video highlights will be :

1. Choose a good marketing agent (in contrast to a transactional agent)
2. Combine Print and Online marketing
3. Invest 1% of the value of your property in marketing
4. Improve your styling and presentation for best results

There is an analyst from RPData who I presume will come up with statistics to show that houses will sell for more if they are advertised in print.  There is also a property stylist and Tom Panos from News Limited fills one of these expert slots himself.  Another one or two of the slots are to include real life vendors who provides a testimonial on how print worked for him when selling.  There is not a real estate agent in sight apparently and overall the production values on the video appears very high from what we were allowed to see.

News Limited will be providing all of their clients with the dvd’s to provide seller clients as part of a physical pre-listing kit. Of course many agents are skipping the traditional printed pre listing kit and are choosing to deliver digital versions and News Limited is finalising a website now that will feature the video that agents can provide vendors as part of a digital pre listing kit. There will probably be the typical brochures and like to hand out at listing presentations and open houses.

The message that was sold as part of the “show” and I assume will feature heavily on the video itself when we get to see it is:  that of course an agent has to advertise your property on the internet, that’s only natural and to be expected but only the very best agents use print advertising as an additional option and  they are able to leverage the print ads to achieve a premium price by as much as 10% because of the increased competition that a print campaign will create.  With print advertising you get to sell your house For What It’s Worth!

Given the short video that I have seen I actually think the concept works and has a great potential and it seemed to be well received by most agents. The fact that it uses video and the internet to push a print message is of course slightly hypocritical but I think overall it will be a positive move.

It might win them a few battles and keep them in the war a little longer but can the “For What It’s Worth” campaign kick the pesky rebels out of the Galaxy….. not by a long shot.

Any Star Wars fans out there know that by the end of the Empire Strikes Back movie the Rebel Alliance have kicked the Galactic Empires butt once again. In fact once the Empire recovers from that shellacking there is still a third movie in the original Star Wars trilogy called Return of the Jedi to be played out yet where the Rebel Alliance turns up the pressure, the Galactic Empire falls and the Emperor is killed.

These tactics might extend the life of print as an option for property advertising but I fear nothing can save it from the inevitable.

If print is still successful for you and is a valid option that you offer owners then you are probably going to love the For What It’s Worth campaign especially if you are an auction orientated agent. It has the potential to be a great tool to get VPA for print advertising. It wont be the saviour of the Newspaper Advertising for real estate agents that News Limited would like to hope for but it will make a difference and give you a great tool to add to your kit.

Of course to all the Star Wars fans out there I have to ask you to ignore any other Star Wars facts that do quite not fit this story however if you can come up with any other connections between the two sagas then share away!

For instance.. who plays the part of the Emperor… Rupert?

What about this… Darth Vader fathered Luke Skywalker who went on to destroy the empire which is just like News Limited and Fairfax spawning Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au who then go on to threaten (and ultimately destroy) their cash cow.

As you can imagine, the iPhone blew my mind, and continues to amaze me almost every day. I break into a cold sweat if I forget my iPhone. The iPod and BlackBerry are now gathering dust in the spare room, waiting until I get around to putting them on eBay.

I’m now seriously considering buying a MAC for home. Why? I have no idea. As a marketer I’ve just been sucked into the vortex, and I just want one. Every time I switch on my PC at home I’m secretly hoping that it’s broken so I can justify the new purchase to my fiancée (who I know secretly wants one as well).

So, to the eagerly awaited Australian launch of the iPad. Apple’s website is positioning this product as “A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.” I’m a little sceptical.

Really good marketers are masters at finding a gap in a market and creating a product or a service that exploits that gap and fills the void. Exceptional marketers take that one step further and develop a product or service to fill a void that doesn’t even exist, and then create the gap via clever marketing. Before you know it, nobody can understand how they lived without what you’ve invented.

However, in launching the iPad I wonder if Apple has just got a little carried away. As one of the most powerful brands on the planet are they forcing a product onto us that we just don’t need at all?
Apple is telling us that you can conveniently; surf the web, watch videos, download and use apps, flick through photos, manage your diary and emails. All of these things you can do on your MacBook and iPhone. I struggle to see why you would buy this product if you already have the iPhone, and particularly if you also own a MacBook (Apple speak for a laptop).

Will this product revolutionise the way that we consume information and, in turn, how we do business in the real estate sector?

Here are some ideas on how the product “could” be used:

1. Listing Presentations. Laptops can be a little intimidating in the lounge room, some agents suggest that they can create a barrier between the prospective vendor and the agent. Maybe a touch screen tablet will soften that a little.

2. Property Searches. Some of our offices have MACS in reception, enabling the public to drop in and browse our website. The novelty of using iPads could work well.

3. Capturing Information at Open Homes. With the right software (that plugs directly into you database) it would be pretty handy to record not just buyer details, but buyer feedback on an iPad during open homes.

I’m still a sceptic, but I’ll let you know when I’ve bought one (which will probably be early May by the way).

Over the past few weeks I have been receiving emails about a ‘heated’ war between Antony Catalano (MMP Holdings) and Fairfax’s Real Estate Print Guides. You can read a great little article on Crikey here and also The Age article here.

It seems some of eastern Melbourne’s agents including Jellis Craig, and Kay & Burton, are defecting from Fairfax Media’s Melbourne Weekly Real Estate Guide to a new publication being led by Antony Catalano (MMP Holdings) and some law firms with some the local agents taking a stake in the publication.

Now where do I start?

Yesterday’s article by Charlie pointed to a percentage of agents that claim that vendors are somewhat begging to be included in print publications. I call this segment of the market ‘truth stretchers’ or maybe ‘agents with interests in print publications’ is a better phrase. Seriously? Vendors are knocking on agents doors to advertise in print? Surely you jest!

Print Advertising

Print Advertising is a barrier market these days. Convincing a vendor to shell out thousands of dollars for a one day advert that only competing agents look at (a little harsh yes), is hardly a good advertising investment for your vendors. The barrier market I refer to is at about $700,000, this means very few people with properties for sale under this figure would look at a print campaign, hence the ‘barrier market’. This barrier is rising by the year and in a few years print publications and interested agents will only survive on the multi million dollar vendors.

This is not to say print advertising is dead, it will survive in exclusive pockets of Australia, but to middle Australia and below, it is finished!

MMP Holdings

But wait! Why have MMP Holdings and others invested in real estate print media? You only need to read Charlie’s article from yesterday to understand why – dumb money! For some reason real estate agents in Australia are still infatuated with print media and whilst print advertising is in decline it is still a very lucrative market.

Going up against Fairfax is a tough deal and one that may play out for years. The problem for MMP Holdings is that incumbent newspapers will not give up their market share without a long costly fight and most of these publications cannot stand the heat or successfully sell back to the newspapers within a few years.

MMP Holdings will have  need to make an impact fast. Having a group of agents owning a share of the publication is not the smartest move either. We have seen how far that will get you with competing agents in the past – especially if this is disclosed to competing agents.

The biggest problem faced by MMP Holdings aside from money is infrastructure. Fairfax have so many other perks it can offer agents with zero real costs that it will make competing in the long term difficult. Remember Fairfax are combining their print and online divisions, so offering bonuses on the web for ‘loyal’ agents can make life difficult for MMP Holdings.

Funny Money

Something tells me everyone involved in this is playing with other peoples money. There are hundreds of opportunities out there to make money, why would you spend millions of dollars on an industry that will most surely die a slow and painful death?

All over Australia new glossy print companies are going up against incumbents like Fairfax and every time I read an article on this subject I just think why? Are agents that dumb that they will just continue to throw money at something that offers little value for money?

Maybe I am a web snob, but these glossy wars get a little boring after a while.

According to IBIS World Research (July 2009), real estate advertising will this year (2009/2010) reach $1.56 billion in Australia. That makes it the second largest advertising sector after fast food ($3.3bn), and is greater than auto industry ($997m), banks ($966m) and supermarkets ($774m). Now, every time I turn on the TV these days (which admittedly, is less and less) ads for burgers, cars, banks and supermarkets abound. The 4 great necessities of life I suppose. I’d imagine these guys to be spending big time.

I’d always known real estate would be spending lots too, but to see them firmly in second place (above the other named high ad spenders)?

Moreover, when you consider the fact that 55% of all property enquiry now comes from online advertising (Macquarie Bank, Real Estate Report, Nov 09) then there is something seriously wrong.

If we take the 55% as an average across the country – most of my clients tell me it’s more like 70 or 80% – then at least $850m should be spent on online advertising. However, the best guesstimate I can make is it’s actually $240m. (Frost & Sullivan’s 2008-2012 Report suggested 15% of total real estate ad spending is online). If realestate.com.au takes in $150m or so, Domain $50m and the table scraps are being picked up by the rest ($40m), this also suggests a $240mn total.

So if 55% (or more) enquiries are coming from less than 20% of the spending, where is the other 80%+ of spending going? I think we all know the answer to that one – print.

Now I know that advertising is not only about selling, it’s also about branding, differentiating and getting new listings (in the case of real estate), but how can the remaining $1.3 billion be justified if it is not creating the business enquiry of a spend one quarter of its size? (I’d also argue that branding and the rest can be done online too.)

When posed the question, most real estate agents tell me it’s because their sellers expect print ads. Even if told it is a waste. Perhaps the sellers need educating. Perhaps some agents also like to see their name in lights (well, the local rag made from dead trees anyway) and it’s a competitive forces (“they advertise all over it, so we have to be there”). How much business would be lost if they (collectively, or even unilaterally) halved their print spend? How much money would be saved?

Yes, the print spend is falling (slowly, but inexorably). However, more than a decade into the new economy I can only see justification for maybe an equal split of offline and online ad spend – say $250m each or so on each – and that still leaves a $1 billion dollar black hole.

Please excuse me while I go and have a quiet sob in a darkened room.

Photo credit: the Torus Black Hole, NASA 2003

Even the prestigious New York Times has fallen on hard times and in the same year as picking up 5 Pullitzer Prizes last year for journalism, the second highest yearly haul by one paper in history, they also received a cash injection by Mexican Billionaire Carlos Slim Helu of $250 million dollars just to keep it afloat.

Now the New York Times is probably no different than the vast majority of newspapers out there. They were simply overrun by the internet in the early days and their attempts to play catch up have in general been far from successful.   Leading newspapers have all invested very heavily in slick websites that in many cases generate huge traffic,  but they have failed to capture enough online advertising revenue to support the massive expense of running a newspaper.

So when advertising does not cover the running costs the next revenue source to consider is the readers themselves. But here is where the problem lies as consumers are loathe to pay for something on the internet at the best of times. There are many things that are working against  the newspapers charging for content. There seems like an  endless amount of  other sites that offer the same news for free so the perceived value for news content is very very low. The rise of blogging has increased the amount of opinion based content on the web and there is only so much time a consumer can spend reading.

But the biggest hindrance to digital newspapers has been that readers are bound to their computer. You can’t take your computer out by the pool, or during morning relief visits, at least not without some significant discomfort and space issues.

This is where the Apple iPad kicks in. Now all you Apple fans better skip to the next paragraph because firstly I have to say that nothing that the iPad brings to the table is revolutionary. In fact they are tackling a market place that others have literally failed at capturing for years as there have been full blown tablet pc’s for quite awhile and even lesser powered internet tablets in recent years. So if the iPad brings very little over others before it then what has caused all this fuss. It’s the Apple flavour…. the brand….. the user interface!  Apple can make it look cool and just the apple name will get it into people’s hands and once there they will love it. All in all I reckon they will have a massive success on their hands!

Tablets to date have seen very little takeup by consumers and have been very limited to niche business markets. In fact one of those niche markets for tablet pc’s in the US is real estate agents for the very reasons that Greg mentioned in his article on how the iPad could be used for the real estate industry.  Agents in the US have been using tablets successfully for years and according to recent tech surveys in the US tablet pc use amongst agents is increasing rapidly.  But to date, Microsoft and the hardware companies have failed to capture the consumers interest in tablets. At the CES Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas recently Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer failed to get much interest in the HP tablet he showed the crowd. In contrast, Steve Jobs from Apple has had the world talking about the iPad since it was announced last month.

Overnight we have consumers around the world salivating over a tablet pc.  Apple can do what everyone else has struggled with and make it look cool and trendy.  When it launches you can bet the system will be slick and super fast. Like the iPhone Apple may cripple some more advanced functions to ensure the general usability remains  very high. The iPhone cannot  do true multi tasking, applications widgets can’t be placed on the home screen and the security is a nightmare for developers such as an applications cannot change system settings based up on gps input.  The hardware and software can do it but all quite easily but at the risk of stability and speed.  As an example if the iPhone was allowed to multitask a user may open 10 programs which could slow their iPhone to a crawl but they won’t blame themselves for pushing it beyond its limit, they will blame the iPhone for poor performance.  So Apple just does not allow it and whilst a few will complain of being constrained by Apples limitations placed on its products the vast majority will love the speed and usability.

The iPad has eReader software built. Because it operates on backlit screen technology like a computer screen I can’t see it taking over from the likes of dedicated digital e-ink screen readers for novels. An e-ink reader such as the Amazon Kindle has no backlight which eliminates the eye strain allowing you to read for long periods at a time and is why Amazon and other dedicated ereader manufacturers chose the e-ink technology. Backlights also suck battery power so whilst an iPad’s battery life is measured in hours an e-ink based reader is measured in weeks  Last year there was over 3 million eReaders sold and that is expected to at least double this year.  Our household now has two e-readers and I know of 8 that were purchased by friends after viewing having a play with one of ours.

Novels could really only be consumed in comfort on the iPad over short reading periods which is fine for those on a bus, or a flight this is not going to work for most readers. But unlike reading a novel, newspapers and magazines are normally only read over a short period and the iPad appears to be the perfect marriage for digital newspapers.   E-ink technology is only just moving in to colour but because of the limitations of the technology itself the pages will only ever be static. In contrast the screen of a tablet pc is just like a computer screen and you can view and zoom in on high resolution pictures and video embedded into the articles. So the eReader software on the iPad is great and would make an excellent platform for reading a digital newspaper but even better are custom applications purpose built for the iPad such as the one released by the New York Times to provide an ultimate newspaper experience. The best of both worlds!

You can bet that with the consumers interest in tablet pc’s on the rise that other manufacturers will now jump on the bandwagon and be developing similar consumer orientated models. Because the iPad and its tablet predecessors and soon to follow clones offer an excellent mobile reading solution that seems perfect fit for the digital newspaper the media corporations might finally be able to instill a sense of value into subscription and paywall options and start generating some of that desperately need revenue.

The possibilities for real estate advertising over such as delivery method is absolutley mind blowing. High resolution images, audio and even video tours embedded into your ad and direct linking to your website as the reader sips on a drink poolside may soon be a reality. If they want to stay relevant, and some would say even stay alive, the likes of News Corp and Fairfax have to seize  on this opportunity and develop solutions that the public would be happy to pay for.  Finally old media could properly leverage the new media  they have been trying to tame for years and we as agents could jump on for the ride.

It’s a big step for them to take if they hope to convert from a print to a digital medium and only time will tell. The massive media corporations around the world might be behind in the fight but do they have the second wind and the will to battle to the bell? Media executives around the world will be watching the  New York Times like a hawk but the first stage of success will the public’s acceptance of the Tablet form factor.

Would you pay for a digital edition of your local newspaper if you could view it on something like the iPad? I know I would, its just the price that may be the issue! It stands to reason that if readership was again on the rise  and a new cost structure based on a digital delivery method then agents spending on newspaper advertising would return and the media executives would not have to feel so guilty taking those big bonuses.

Whilst a lot of these things I mentioned can already be done using a laptop, with the recent launch of the Apple iPad and the low entry price for their product, I can see that there will be a large number of potential uses for the iPad for real estate agents.

Just like a restaurant could use the iPad for taking orders or displaying their menu, real estate agents can use the iPad to demonstrate how professionally they can present a potential sellers home, show comparable sales and create a marketing campaign digitally.

The pricing of the iPad means that Apple have provided an affordable way that an agent can make their company appear more high tech out in the field.

Here’s 10 Ways That Real Estate Agents Could Use The iPad…

• Use it for digital listing presentations

• Show property photos and videos in high definition

• Visit websites for doing CMA’s and show other related sites

• Create a Demo Individual Property Website for a client right before their eyes

• Instant database entry at open homes

• Get directions
  

• Show off real estate iPhone apps on a larger screen
  

• Portable client management

• Show details of current listings to buyers on the run

• Checking email enquiries & setting appointments

The launch of the iPad also provides an insight into where Print Media is heading. The iPad is going to make it a better reading experience for people to get their news digitally, which will ultimately have an effect on the physical distribution of printed newspapers.

Local Press may not feel the same affect for a while, but it certainly could have an impact in the amount of physical printed local newspapers distributed long term.

My hope was that the introduction of digital readers like the Apple iPad and Amazon’s Kindle may help to bring the real estate print media prices down to a more affordable level for agents and sellers, but unfortunately it may actually increase.

With the iPad, the newspaper experience will become more engaging, plus the digital newspaper will help to drive more website traffic across to an agent’s website than the printed version ever has. Whilst physical distribution will be down, the electronic distribution of newspapers could explode via the iPad & advertising space will become more popular, hence more expensive.

Whilst I see some great uses for the iPad for real estate agents, there are some developers who feel that Apple could have gone a lot further with their development, eg here’s 8 Things That Suck About The iPad.

I’m sure Apple will include a number of these extra features to the iPad very quickly, just like they did with the iPhone.

But for now it looks like they have made something that is very appealing to the majority of people & have priced it affordably enough that the iPad should end up becoming just as popular as the iPod and the iPhone.

While agents will have to wait to get their hands onto an iPad, over the next few weeks there is a perfect opportunity for agents or franchise groups to prepare a digital listing presentation in time for its delivery.

If you can think of any other uses for the iPad I’d appreciate any other thoughts or ideas.

Disclaimer: I am the director of a company that provides Individual Property Websites for real estate agents.

Meet reporter John Brinkwater, Motoring Expert, Religious Affairs Reporter, Political Correspondent, Pet Expert and Love Guru.

How funny it is that Rupert and the newspaper industry will now turn to the same journalistic stocks and plead with them to save their companies. We will now see the newspaper industry invest in generations of reporters- apparently giving you stories you will want to pay for – I just love the irony of it all.

Rupert can do it!

If the idea is to simply provide the same articles online as you find in the printed version it will fail and Rupert knows this, the online version has to be so much more than just a newspaper, it has to be a an extension of the newspaper and the audience that newspapers serves, it has to be a digital world that involves its readers so much more.

Here are some things that the online version will need to be if it is to succeed.

Rockstars
Journalists will now become Rockstars, meet Miranda Devine and Peter FitzSimons, two journalists with strong opinions, loyal followers and equally loyal antagonists. People read articles from these journalists because they either want to believe them or want to disagree.

Today, they write articles for the Sydney Morning Herald, tomorrow they will be thrust into a new limelight, they will have their own Rockstar page, you will be able to see all of their articles and even have them read to you, you will be able to see them give video responses to some of the readers letters and every so often they will be online to chat to a group and discuss the days article.

Beat Journalists
We will also see the return of the beat journalist, the gritty no hold barred reporters that infiltrate the seedy side of town, those that provide a social commentary on the streets we live in. We will see new stories that go deeper into our political spectrum and spit in the face of any reference to any word ending in ‘gate’. We will see editors screaming at them to finish the story or come up with something quickly (like in every movie depicting a journalist) and we will see real news items ‘breaking’ rather than some petty rubbish at an Iguana cafe.

Forums
We will see real forums like http://fora.tv/ and real talks like the ones found at www.ted.com. A hot news topic of the day could end in a weekly forum at SMH’s offices, beamed online to a participating audience. We are not talking about International happenings we are taking about real local issues. Whether it be about building developments, education, social services, sport, religion, health or politics, people are interested in forums about local issues.

Talks are a different thing, however there are brilliant people every single week jetting into Sydney, Melbourne etc that we would want to listen to like Christopher Hitchens or Britney Spears, who of course, in a world first could ‘lip sync’ a speech!

Immerse your audience
I disagree with Miranda Devine about a lot of things, I also agree with her some things, although I would say I am more passionate about the things I disagree on (I think we all are – you never see people marching with signs ‘I am pretty happy about public transport). I have even written to her (Miranda) once or twice explaining why I disagree with her.

But I want a website where I can voice my opinion, no mater how wrong I might be. I also want to create my own little world that others would explore, I might wish to become a little bit of a journalist Rockstar myself. I can chose any article to respond to from my ‘Dashboard’, I can write it, create a video response and even an audio response. I might even want to become a reporter myself and give the option for advertisers to advertise on my page on SMH as it becomes more and more popular and share in the revenues with the newspaper. When I join, I choose my areas of interest ranked 1 – 10 and my page rebuilds giving me the information , news, videos, forums, goods and services that match my interests. I can write, buy, sell, promote anything from this page!

Devices
All of this should be available on any device I choose, desktop, mobile or on the move with any one of the tablet devices (Kindle) we will see hitting the streets in the next few years.

Advertising
The advertising in online newspapers has to get smarter and get local. Newspapers currently rely on big advertisers and this is just dumb and is one of the major reasons they are hurting.

If I am sitting at my desk in Bondi, the advertising on the page for the most part should be local. If I am reading the Age Newspaper on my Kindle passing through Footscray the advertising should be about the area I am in. If it is around dinner time the advertising should be about restaurants, pubs, live music, theatre etc. It should also be about my tastes, I would be happy to provide non deep personal details to get what I want.

If newspapers can build a smarter platform for advertisers they can engage advertisers to the local level, opening up billions of dollars of extra revenue. It also has to be built to work for the advertiser, it has to be built around set micro payments and it has to be 100% automated.

I should be able to log on as a Mosman Realtor and see an article about homes in Mosman and click a button to place an ad on that page for anyone reading it within certain suburbs and certain demographics. It should only cost tens of dollars per day!

Mashups
Open your newspapers up, open your databases, let the development world come in and play and you will open up so many ideas at the base. It absolutely amazes me how scared and dumb these organisations are. You only have to look around the web to see how much innovation comes from mashups.

Ideas Vault
Finally, here is the all important ingredient. Invest in ideas. Incumbent media companies have got themselves in so much financial trouble because they thought they could simply buy ideas. They have to set up teams within their organisations that only answer to the board. This small team of 10 programmers, 2 designers and one manager would just build stuff, anything, they would be allowed access to any information and would just be an ideas vault. Some things would make it and some wouldn’t but by investment a few million each year in this team, they can avid catastrophically costly purchases of the past.

If the online newspaper is to successfully move to a paid for subscription it has to be so much more than just a newspaper. I think it can be done, bit I don’t know if the current leaders of big media are smart enough to do it.

I have been spending the last few weeks researching my second article on ‘newspapers and the online world‘ but will not release this until next week now, as this issue deserves an article on its own. Lets have a little look at what this is all about.

The Murdoch Aproach
On a cool August night at the Edinburgh TV festival James Murdoch launched a blistering attack on the BBC, describing their ambitions as “chilling” and accused them of mounting a “land grab” in a media market that has been decimated by the US recession and downturn in classifieds and revenue.

James basically thinks that the BBC should be scrapped, or at least held to account and its role diminished. In the UK the BBC is huge and is probably the most popular network in the country as it spews out Television, Radio classics with gay abandon. It also is the voice of the news across the country. Each taxpayer in the UK pays about 180 pounds a year to fund the BBC and from facts and figures it very patriotic about the BBC, much as we would be here in Australia.

Rupert on the other hand wants Google to pay a fee for any pages of content indexed not only on its news site but also on its news.google.com.au website and has also sounded a warning to Yahoo, MSN and other news aggregators. Maybe MSN and Yahoo will come running as they are being left behind by Google, but for the majority of users on the Internet and the majority of articles and Tweets, News Ltd has few friends.

This attack actually shows how little Rupert actually understands about the Internet and is quite embarrassing for him.

“The philistine phase of the digital age is almost over,” he said. “The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price, and the content kleptomaniacs will triumph.” Rupert Murdoch said.

Fast Company’s Kit Eaton has a great little article that throws a pretty decent punch into the loins of Ruperts argument.

Despite Murdoch’s rants about paid content, it’s widely known that the subscription pay walls at his own Wall Street Journal site are easily circumvented if you search for the headline…using Google.

And Google broadcasts (for all to see) methods by which you can prevent its crawler bots indexing your page–hence keeping its link off Google’s indexed searches, and (in Murdoch’s mind) keeping Google’s thieving hands off his lovely expensively-created news content.

Murdoch’s newspaper’s Web page code doesn’t block Google’s robot.

Rupert hopes that every newspaper will follow his lead and start charging for content – in effect making it harder for the public to get to the news unless they pay for it, but it cannot do this if the BBC and ABC spit it out for free.

Rupert’s problem is – he has not got too many friends in his own market and one thing is for sure – if there is a new way, they will not be jumping on a New Ltd owned solution anytime soon.

Senate Hearings
How strange that the Liberal Party are already moving into the commercial corner with Senator Ian McDonald (LNP) questioning Mark Scott on remuneration for ABC TV personalities. Basically Ian McDonald thinks that all ABC should be public, after all, the public do find it!

I can tell you my position on this and that is I agree 100% with Senator McDonald. I am of the opinion that anytime a single cent of the public’s money is spent it should be available online and we should know exactly where it is being spent. If you want to make money from the public, this is the price you pay for the generosity of the public purse.

However Senator McDonald and other politicians should take notice, how about we extend this to local, state and federal government deals? Yes, no more commercial in confidence, secret public/private deals behind close doors. If you use our money or profit from it in any way, by law, we should know where every last cent of it goes, at the time a deal is inked!

Videos

James Murdoch Speech

Lateline
ABC news

Articles

Rupert Murdoch Says Google Is Stealing His Content. So Why Doesn’t He Stop Them?
Scott to hit back on criticism of ABC’s internet space
Google News Search
List of News Aggregator Websites and Software

Over to you

How many of us would give up the ABC News, Radio or Television to let the commercial networks run the show? Would we see the same level of quality?

Sadly however, the people that have run these industries from the top always seem to be clueless as to what the future holds. I will read with interest the changes new Fairfax Chairman, Roger Corbett makes in his first 3 months in charge or if he just takes a ‘steady as she goes’ approach. In my opinion he has to immediately show he has got something to offer and he has to get creative .

In the first of a two part series I am going to take a look at The Print Newspaper both here in Australia and also in The USA where I am currently located. In Australia we have two major real estate newspapers, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age these are both controlled by Fairfax.

The second part of this series to be released this time next week will focus on the future of online newspapers.

The Boardroom

We have a management problem, boardrooms are filled with people that have a good record of running traditional companies or companies that have made the digital transition easily. However, the majority of boardrooms today are filled with people that are not qualified to understand the digital age and the behavior of their own market in this digital age.

In the beginning it was much easier to launch a jobs, cars or houses website if you had an established classifieds newspaper to get it off the ground. Realestate.com.au was not saved by investment from News Ltd (although it helped) , it was the aggressive push through their newspapers and property guides from News Ltd (and a slack competitor) that established its success.

Today it is nearly impossibly to run a newspaper if you do not have strong jobs, cars and houses website in each of the key markets. Newspapers can no longer survive without the online world!

For an established newspaper to change, it has to start at the top. If the stories of Roger Corbett are true, then he must change his attitude or he will be remembered as the Chairman who sank Fairfax. The man has had great success in the past and I cannot see how at his age and with his bank account, he could not want more, than to make the changes needed in his own headspace to make this work.

You cannot be successful if you think that the newspaper market will get back to normal levels once the economy picks up; or if your only other idea is to wait for other Internet companies to succeed and then purchase them at inflated prices; or if you invest more in marketing and less in your journalistic talent; or think more tabloid news stories will appeal to the masses!

You have to understand that what is broken cannot be fixed in the same ways you have attempted to fix them in the past.

Yesterdays News

I love newspapers, I read them every single day. Actually, let me clarify, I read the news everyday, but I rarely buy newspapers.

The reason I do not buy newspapers is fairly simple, and is summed up in the following statement.

When was the last time a real news story broke in a newspaper, before it broke online?

You, like me cannot think of one recent event. If you are using an RSS reader (like me) and get your news delivered this way, you probably hear about the news before anyone in a newspaper newsroom hears about it. Even better Twitter (and the right accompanying application) will get it to you quicker.

Yesterdays News

Let us look at the first issue, news. The first time I really thought it was over for newspapers was when Saddam Hussein’s rein ended. I remember reading the headlines outside a newsagent in Hobart, Tasmania almost 24 hours after it happened, as if it just happened! Remember that statue coming down? This is the papers biggest problem, it cannot scoop news, so it tries to make up news.

Michael Jackson dies and for 2 weeks we have a different headline each day, each one trying to out do the previous. This is not news, it isn’t even interesting, you don’t create news – you find it – and you cannot find it unless you grow your journalists and give them the freedom and time to search for it.

The Classifieds

Once upon a time we read a newspaper to look for a job, a house, a car, a garage sale or a classified. You purchased the Trading Post to look for a bargain and you may have even looked at advertising for a coupon to take to Coles or Woollies.

Classifieds will never return, they will continue to shrink and someone will have to do the maths one day on whether it is worthwhile to run the wretched things in print.

Classifieds are now almost exclusively online, so there must be a conduit between the print version which should be about stories and statistics, to the online which should be the classifieds and even more statistics.

Subscriptions

The price of a daily newspaper is dirt cheap, yet fewer people are willing to pay for it. In Australia, I purchased Wired and Fast Company magazines each month. I loved these magazines, but air freighted and at $16 an issue it was ridiculous, but I still paid for it. Since I arrived in the USA and have an address here, I have subscribed to both magazines at a total cost of $19.80 for 24 issues!

Surely these companies lose money? I think you have already guessed why they do it. Their thinking is that they make the purchase so cheap that it makes common sense to just subscribe – even for the casual buyer, the losses on delivery are minimal and are offset by the increase in advertising revenues. Lifting your guaranteed monthly subscriptions, lifts your total guaranteed readership and impresses potential advertisers.

This is exactly what newspapers need to do. They can keep their newsstand price the same, but run promotions for $9.95 per annum where you can get the newspaper delivered to your door 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Anything more than $19.95 per annum is not an impulse buy and therefore will not work.

There are many ways you can offset this price, increases in advertisers, bundling other companies leaflets, flyers etc.

The Rockstar Journalists

We only have to look at the current stocks of young journalists to know just how sad a situation we are in. Gone are the days of journalists dedicating months to a story and cracking a scandal, the majority are now relegated to press releases or are so tied up covering so many stories, that they have no time to actual do any real beat reporting. Many journalists now have too many job titles and business cards that it is laughable.

Examples

• Political Correspondent James Worthy
• Youth with James ‘JimmyW’ Worthy
• Yachting Expert James Worthy
• Lawn Bowls with James Worthy
• Ask James
• Religious Affairs with Brother James

We are about to enter a new era of the rockstar journalist. These are the same journalists that we read today, but newspapers will be making them into rockstars. Even though the first stage will be shallow, I believe that the newspapers across the globe will need to get back to breeding stars, beat journalists and real local content.

Sure, we have some good journalists in the political arena, an almost endless supply of financial experts, plenty of celebrity style journalists and some that provide us with a running commentary on social issues from both sides such as Peter Fitzsimons and Miranda Devine, both of whom are excellent writers, but are more social commentators than true investigative journalists.

I am talking about beat journalists, a breed who follow a lead for months/years, who give us real gritty local and national impact stories and every now and then crack a conspiracy – journalists that know it is a mortal sin to end any scandal with the word ‘gate’.

A newspaper should provoke a discussion in the workplace and around the nations dinner tables and only beat journalism can do that!

Newspapers are facing slow death and I think only the true beat journalist can save them. Michael Moore has some interesting comments on the death of newspapers. It comes in at 21 minute mark if you want to jump straight to it.

Design

Jacek Utko, is a newspaper designer, he has had some great success in lifting circulation. Newspapers are boring and they need a re-design, it will not make all the difference, but it is all part of the new solution. You can also read an interview with Jacek here.

Watch this February 2009 Ted Talk by Jacek.

Distribution

I currently live in Boston, where you have the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald, each one of these companies have their own set of delivery trucks. The cost of delivering newspapers does not have to be so high. Come together, open your network up to other local newspapers and periodicals, where you actually make money from the distribution.

Do Newspapers still matter?

I love newspapers, I think they can still survive, they will never thrive like before, that is because the classifieds ‘rivers of gold’ (jobs, cars, houses) are lost forever to the web, but they have a real relevance to a cities identity. It will be a sad day if this is lost and the blame for this will lie squarely with the owners of these media groups – who still seem to think that it is their right to control the media and not simply a time limited privilege!

Summary

It is a tough sell. I cannot see many newspapers surviving if the boardrooms just think that everything will be fine once the economy picks up. Everything from the people to design, subscriptions, distribution must change.

Next week in part two, I will talk about the future of online newspapers and provide soe great examples of what we can expect in the next generation.