Key Economics Lessons For The Digital Era
from the things-to-remember dept
Jeff Jarvis has a series of short notes that he’s put together on “hard economic lessons” for the news business, but many of them apply to pretty much any industry — and it seems worth pointing some of them out for discussion:
- Tradition is not a business model. The past is no longer a reliable guide to future success.
- “Should” is not a business model. You can say that people “should” pay for your product but they will only if they find value in it.
- Virtue is not a business model. Just because you do good does not mean you deserve to be paid for it.
- Business models are not made of entitlements and emotions. They are made of hard economics. Money has no heart.
- Begging is not a business model. It’s lazy to think that foundations and contributions can solve news’ problems. There isn’t enough money there.
- No one cares what you spent. Arguing that news costs a lot is irrelevant to the market.
There’s a lot more at the link, much of which I agree with (a few I think are slightly misleading or wrong, but those are outweighed by the ones I do think are dead on). However, these were the key points that resonated the most with me and which I think are good pointers that many in traditional businesses have trouble with. Many of the arguments we hear against the new business models we talk about (or the bad decisions by those legacy businesses) stem from not understanding the six points above.
Filed Under: digital, economics, journalism, tradition