"...only things that really touch people will succeed."

A wise piece of advice from Davos, Switzerland. A group of media execs were asked by IHT (who, I just noticed, did away with their multi-column format...) about their dream media empires. A lot of stuff you'd imagine. Buried amidst it, though, I found this gem by Michelle Guthrie, chief executive of the Asian broadcaster STAR Group, to bring to light, "In the past, only a few people could afford to be in production. Now that content can be produced by more people, only things that really touch people will succeed." Amen to that.

This is why I don't think the current model 'make it big and slick as run as a corporation' type of journalism will survive if it's up to things that really touch people. Big corporations aren't good at that, imho.

That's not to say that some of these basic one and two cell business models won't evolve into something a lot more - and quickly, for we all know (or at least should) that time passes differently in cyberspace - passes more quickly.

And I'm sorry, but this is another point the local newspaper doesn't want to hear, I think:

But even as they face new competitors, media companies will increasingly make reference to those competitors in their effort to engage readers, he said.

"The successful media empire of the future will regularly send their audience to the best stories by their competitors," Bonnie said. "The three-legged stool of content will be original, user-generated and aggregated."

I've been doing this with my TSP Forum Watch series. It's becoming a little popular. I keep it extra snarky, but may have to change that eventually. In any case, I think the readers see that I link freely to The Star Press and all other sources of info, while The Star Press keeps links (for the most part), in-house only. I think this will matter to the readers eventually.

(I'm surprised, to be honest, no big media newspaper companies excel in the SERPs online. For example, all the newspaper sites linking to GNS content helps the GNS site...)

I'm missing a lot of content, though. It can't be automated and for a big area (county wide in the midwest), it can't be covered by one person alone. Revenue is starting to kick in, though, and maybe soon I'll have a bunch of interns to increase the content on the site.

I have the 'voice' of MFP now, I think, or at least can see the beginnings of it. Now, I need to concentrate on some of the basic info I glossed over but people read every single day - Obits and Police Reports. That, and tap into the college audience.

Moving slowly is good, though. I'm learning a lot about what to do and not do - hopefully that info will be important in future media battles, in future cities.

Here's to Journalism Hope.

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