We, we being people that think alot about newspapers dying due to the online media revolution defined by blogs and news aggregators and stuff like that, have taken too narrow a view.  We really should be talking about the impact of online media on all traditional news media outlets.

If you look at it from the consumer’s point of view in three different time-frames here’s what you see:

1992 – A Day in the Life of Jon Lowder, News Media Consumer

• 7 a.m.: Watch morning show (probably Today on NBC) while getting dressed.
• 7:30-8:15 a.m.: Listen to drive-time radio, especially for traffic reports.
• 8:15-8:45 a.m.: Read newspaper while eating a bagel at my desk.
• 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Have radio playing softly in the background (especially if boss is out of the office) while diligently typing away in Wordperfect for DOS, and tracking marketing results on my Lotus123 spreadsheet (DOS version of course).
• 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.: Listen to drive-time radio, especially for traffic reports.
• 7:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.: Watch national news broadcast, or CNN.
• 7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.:  Watch prime-time TV, or do chores (other stuff) with TV on in background.
• 11:00 p.m.: Watch local news broadcast.

2000 – A Day in the Life of Jon Lowder, News Media Consumer

• 7 a.m.: Watch morning show (probably Today on NBC) while getting dressed.
• 7:30-8:15 a.m.: Listen to drive-time radio, especially for traffic reports.
   
• 8:15-8:45 a.m.: Check news sites, read email newsletters online while eating a bagel at my desk.
• 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Have favorite alternative music streaming on my PC; regularly check stocks on Yahoo; IM and email buddies while getting some work done and laughing at boss’s memo reminding everyone of the personal phone call policy and the need to limit personal calls for productivity reasons.  (He thinks IM stands for Internal Memo).
• 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.: Listen to drive-time radio, especially for traffic reports.
• 7:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: Surf web, email, IM, catch up on some work on my laptop while TV is on in background.
• 11:00 p.m.: Watch local news broadcast as I fall asleep (three kids now; can’t usually make it past usual bloody lead story).

2005 – A Day in the Life of Jon Lowder, News Media Consumer

• 7 a.m.: Drag myself to kitchen and make a pot of coffee, get kids ready for school.
• 7:30-8:15 a.m.: If I still commuted would probably listen to satellite radio or plug in my digital player and change over to news broadcast "on the 8s" to check traffic.  I’d also wonder why I don’t have a RSS traffic feed that updates traffic conditions for my route and that I can check with my Treo or Blackberry.
   
• 8:15-5:30: Check RSS feeds.  Start with fun stuff, and work my way to business related feeds.  Update personal blog and then start on business related blogs, which I’m now regularly using to organize my information.  Update my del.icio.us tags.

  While reading the RSS feed from one of my regional newspapers I notice that they’ve posted some audio from a contentious town council meeting last night.  Not sure if local news had it last night at 11:00, but don’t care.  Then I notice that the newspaper is starting to outfit its reporters with digital video cameras and they are teaching themselves how to integrate audio and video into their stories.  Hmmm.

  Make a resolution with myself to figure out the whole Podcasting thing, and find something I like so I can add it to my menu.

  Check my RSS feeds throughout the day. Also visit my "regular" websites CNN (old habits die hard), MyYahoo (check fantasy league stats), Fark (need a good laugh).

• 5:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m.: See what I would have done for morning drive time.
• 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: Give my eyes a rest, go to kids’ practices or games.
• 9:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.: Watch whatever I’ve Tivo’d.  No news since I can’t imagine much has changed in the last two hours.

Okay, I’ll admit some of the changes in my media consumption habits were due to my lifestyle changes.  But the big picture I’m trying to illustrate is that while we’ve beaten the "newspapers are dying" horse until it’s died twice, we’ve tended to ignore what’s also happening to broadcasters.

First, I’m tickled pink that at least one newspaper is starting to invade the local broadcasters’ territory. (Poetic justice I think).  Because digital videography is becoming cheap and ubiquitous there’s not much of a barrier for someone to come along and take the broadcasters head-on.

Now the online food chain still hasn’t changed much.  Most bloggers do little original story creation or reporting.  They compile facts gleaned from secondary sources (i.e. mainstream media), add their own opinion/spin/analysis and then broadcast it to the online universe through RSS.  While there is plenty of good, original writing, there isn’t much original reporting.

The same is true with video.  Most news video feeds you find online were originated by a mainstream media outlet and then linked to or copied and re-posted by bloggers, independent websites, etc.

What’s happening now is that mainstream media companies have determined that they can’t continue with business as usual.  They’ve also recognized that their competitive advantage is no longer the printing press, or the hugely expensive video production facilities.  Their competitive advantage is their "talent": reporters, producers, editors, etc.

The reporters know how to find a good story, the editors know how to package it and the producers know how to pull it all together and sell it.  What they are trying to figure out how to do is protect their advertising revenue stream. 

Ironically, I think the largest immediate threat for news broadcasters are newspapers.  Newspapers have the reporters and the editors, they just need to add some audio-video production staff and some decent video editing software and they’re good to go.

Just about anyone can set up a digital video production facility these days.  Much more daunting is the task of setting up a viable news gathering and reporting operation.  The newspapers already have the hard part taken care of, now they just need to do the easier part.

I’ll address what I think is going to evolve over the years in my next post.