The conversation has been continual today; in comments, emails, IMs and on Twitter... readers and fellow golf bloggers are speaking out, and the clear consensus is that "the traditional business model"... in golf, like in every other niche... "won’t keep working.”
As blog readers, web surfers and Twitterers, the participants in today's online discussion are ahead of the curve tech-wise, thus comfortable in the digital world. However, even people like my Dad, a total technophobe, and voracious daily reader of the New York Times, are beginning to acknowledge the changes taking place (not that he's agreed to learn how to use a computer or anything).
TechCrunch, the popular and respected technology blog, wrote about the digital future of media just yesterday. The post presents all the evidence one needs to be convinced that the future of media is digital.
Of course this transition is not going to be painless for anyone. Transitions rarely are.
Golf manufacturers, course owners, and golf service providers are going to have to figure out where they want to put their advertising dollars in an environment that suddenly offers so many new options.
Traditional golf publications are going to need to enhance their web presence, some have already done this successfully, others are not quite there yet. They'll also need to decide if they want to enter the social media fray and really communicate with their readers. I hear a number of comments to the effect of, "... the "creators" of the media need to be more in touch with the "consumers" of the media - currently, they are way too out of touch".
As for independent golf content producers bloggers, vloggers and podcaster... They're going to have to figure out how to get paid for their work... whether by monetising their blogs with ads or creating premium content for paid subscribers or through various sponsorships... otherwise their production won't be sustainable.
Finally there are the consumers. Initially this may seem like a win/win for the consumer, but there are pitfalls to the disarray; Content may be getting cheaper and more accessible, and some of the independently produced content is excellent. However when you take away the newsroom, the copy editors and the regular schedule, you often get poorly researched, poorly written pieces that come along whenever a particular blogger is feeling inspired.
So, as we head into 09 , we do so not knowing exactly what the golf media landscape of the future will look like. We just know it's changing, and after all, most of us recently voted for change, right?
The issue is the level of interactivity. Marketers prefer being able to directly contact likely consumers. As John Wanamaker said, half of advertising is wasted, he just didn't know which half.
ReplyDeleteThis plays itself out through the development side of media. Blogs, like yours and mine, operate within the new business model, which is continuing to be defined.
Golf magazines will continue to have their place as a premium product. Just as e-mail will never eliminate the sales of Crane's paper products that I adore, there will still be glossy golf magazines and I will continue to enjoy them.
What will develop are various other avenues for content. For me, it's easy (some days more than others). I produce and merely need to find those interested in purchasing my work. For advertisers it is more difficult.
Whereas in the days of Mad Men, they could mass advertise through limited channels, today they are forced to experiment. Consumers, and people like me, benefit. I say carpe diem.
Though now faced with myriad choices, readers have the innate ability to separate wheat from chaff.
ReplyDeleteI didn't vote for change.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still want my Wall Street Journal delivered to my door in paper form, so the dirty ink can wipe onto my fingers and inevitably my clothes. I'll take my pink FT as well.
I agree the landscape is changing, and the sudden economic crisis has made the need to be efficient and and cost effective more pressing, but one problem is that most blogs are just not that good. Yours is exceptional and it's evidenced in your huge audience. To come up with entertaining, varied, well researched content like you do every day is a monumental effort I know something about it because I tried.
ReplyDeleteI'm just saying that the fact there are so many bad (or just mediocre) blogs out there may be confusing to those used to traditional golf media like Golf Digest.
What's next ? The marketing people will be trying to get the more attractive players to adopt the putting stance on that magazine cover ! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's going to take some doing to get people off of hard copy. Reading a screen is hard on the eyes even if you have a big screen. And there is a lot to be said for portabiity. You can't take your 21" monitor to the park or on the bus - and we'd go blind if we tried to read off these phone or iPod screens.
I agree with Bobbio - there's just something special about holding the paper or magazine in your hands.
I subscribed to Golf for Women for 8 years and was bitterly disappointed when it was suddenly dropped. All the more so when the publisher cavalierly started sending me the Men's golf magazines in its place as though those publications were of the same value to me. I say bring on the new media!
ReplyDeleteIt's exciting to see where (and how) the message will be delivered. Print's not going away, but online is a growing force with exciting interactivity that's not available in print media. The strongest players will be those who combine both utilizing the strengths of each. I can't wait to be able to watch an exciting match online and click on Tiger's ball in the middle of the green and have a ball's eye view of the hole. Interesting?
ReplyDeleteAnother insightful post, GG. I think the shift will really take place when the "shift of responsibility" is accepted by those of us who "create" the new media - Blogging gives many of us easy access, however, we have to accept the responsibility that comes with that. I will confess to being one of the "erratic" bloggers in the past - but no more. I've resolved to keep pace with you going forward in hopes that we can provide good examples to traditional media to "keep up". Somehow, the print media has got to understand the need for fresh,insightful content and commentary. Here is one good example - why do we only get an Equipment "Hot List" once per year - why not quarterly ? I'm sure there list only starts there...but it needs to start to keep people engaged.
ReplyDeleteIMO, It's all about immediacy. When you can get up-to-the-minute news and features on-line, the monthly, and even weekly publications lose quite of their relevance. So often in the past year I've been reading a golf magazine and they're talking about a new product or some hot gossip and I'm thinking - this isn't new! Because I read it two weeks earlier.Here! :)
ReplyDeleteRIGHT NOW the shift from OLD to NEW media is accelerating, because of the economic meltdown AND the fact that so much of new media is cheap to free.
ReplyDeleteThe shift will be complete when the last "not born wired" generation is gone. By then new media will have a cost structure in proportion to old media had at it's zenith.
Patricia, Heather and others all raise very valid points, but I wonder how quickly this transition will TRULY take place in consideration of the aging of the general population, and the lack of young people picking up the game.
ReplyDeleteLike Patricia's father, the older generation does not pick up on new technologies as quickly as younger, savvier users do. And this will certain impact how golf media entities evolve as times goes on. It may not be necessary to take the deep plunge into new media if a company's subscriber base consists primarily of an older demographic, and is not likely to read a blog, or join an online community, or interact with other golfers on Facebook.
Perhaps the answer is for many of these companies to cast a wider net, and implement several initiatives simultaneously to reach as many consumers, across multiple demographic groups, as possible,and through as many new media vehicles as possible.
Regardless, it will be interesting to see how all of this plays outs, especially for those of us, like myself, who grew up reading traditional magazines like Golf Magazine, Golf Digest, and Golfweek.
For those of you in the technology industry you might have heard of the technology adoption curve. It's basically a trend of how people adopt new technologies and has been designed around what happened with the Internet, mobile phones, broadband, and things like Tivo.
ReplyDeleteIt's basically a bell curve that group people into the following categories: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards. From what everyone's being saying here I think the same theory can be applied to take up of Golf Media online. A picture of the curve can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DiffusionOfInnovation.png
The long and short of it is that when a new technology comes along that has merit, eventually everyone comes across - it's just a matter of time for the different types of people out there. I'd suspect most of you here here are in the "Innovators" category.
That being the case, we probably really are at the tip of the iceberg as more people become aware and subscribe to getting information online. This is being helped with the ongoing advances in technology - being able to blog on mobile phones as an example.
The mobile phone is actually a great example of the changing of the population's behaviour. Back in 1995, nobody needed one. Now, it's strange if someone doesn't have one, no matter the age. And the time of the land line is falling away.
But, beyond that, people use their mobile phones for different things. Some use just for a phone. Others for a phone and a music player. For others, it does everything but washes the kitchen sink. While almost everyone has a phone, people are on different parts of the technology curve when it comes to how it's being used.
The Internet is similar. A lot of people are on it. How it's being used is dependent on where people are at on the technology curve. Over time, as people get used to using it and technology makes it easier to view things (eg - I hear there are phones being developed with in-built projectors now), the majority instead of the minority will use the web to read for information and pleasure. There are too many advantages for it not to happen.
One thing I am curious about is why some of you haven't joined forces already to challenge the traditional media as they find their feet online....
Golf magazines will continue to have their place as a premium product. It was really good blog.
ReplyDeleteMal Your comments are insightful. And I think you're right about the bell curve, the stage we're at now is just the beginning of the early adopters.
ReplyDeleteAs for your question about why the bloggers here don't get together and challenge the major golf media's blogs That probably has due to economics more than anything else. Most of us are managing to make a small living with our own blogs...or we're working other jobs to maker our livings and doing out blogs in our spare time. If several of us got together to create a blog/site to compete with major golf media blogs I'm not sure there's a business model that would allow us to all get paid. :o(
I have read much about the technology adoption curve, but I think it is not entirely applicable to golf and other leisure magazines.
ReplyDeleteWhere a technology innovation offers an order of magnitude advantage over its predecessor, I agree the technology adoption curve is applicable. Cell phones is an obvious example. But does Golf Digest online represent an order of magnitude advantage over the print version? I don't think so.
I've heard all sorts of predictions about the book publishing industry over the past 15 years - the years that I owned bookstores in two states. Amazon and other E-stores would quickly supplant brick and mortar book sales. eBooks would take over the publishing industry. Authors would distribute their books online and bypass publishers.
Those predictions have not come true. Certainly Amazon and the eBook industry have grown. But brick and mortar sales of hardcopy books has remained an extremely large industry, and still dominates the marketing of popular books.
As I see it, the adoption of many technologies is not as quick and as widespread as the examples most commonly cited in arguments about the technology adoption curve.
Pat,
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