Wall Street Journal: Why blogs are helping to push traditional media “into the dustbin of history”

According to the Wall Street Journal special report How Old Media Can Survive In a New World, Blogs are prominent among technologies threatening to “push the traditional newspaper, television, radio, music and advertising industries into the dustbin of history.”

A user poll on the site indicates that readers say newspapers (by far) should have the most to fear.

Many reports of late have covered the crisis facing newsapapers, and this article does too. In addition, the WSJ details the challenges facing the TV networks.

* The nightly broadcasts on the big three networks have had a 28.4% decline in total viewers since 1991. In 1978, the three original broadcast networks captured about 90% of the prime-time audience. Today, it’s less than 50%. The Journal credits this to cable and the advent of online news sources, blogs and email alerts.

Specific tidbits related specifically to the advantages of the Blog platform:

Honest, unfiltered content:

Larry Ellin, an associate professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University says “People aren’t going to the Internet because it looks like a newspaper,” Mr. Ellin says. “It’s because they’re getting something exotic and fresh and new and unfiltered. It’s like eating French cheese. It hasn’t been pasteurized. And it’s good.”

Open two-way communication:

Andrew Swinand, a senior vice president and group client director at Publicis Groupe SA’s Starcom Worldwide says reporters should be allowed to craft blogs about their topic of expertise. Readers should be able to add comments and reaction to a story in an online community.

Targeted editorial:

“The newspaper of the future is going to be a coalition of niche products,” says S.W. “Sammy” Papert III, chairman and CEO of Belden Associates, a Dallas newspaper-industry consultant.

More relevant format than TV and print:

“The old-media world told us we should jam our commercials in between their programming,” suggests James Vincent, a global managing director on Apple Computer Inc. business at Omnicom Group Inc.’s TBWA\Chiat\Day. “What if a brand could communicate in a longer format? You can do that on the Internet or in places that become destinations.”

Ron Chernow, a leading biographer and author of such books as “Alexander Hamilton” and “Titan,” says he worries that the screen is replacing the printed page.

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