The digital audience

Do you want the digital audience?

Conventional wisdom tells you that the print audience is dead, aging, or dying. What it’s really doing though is shrinking. There’s a non-trivial number of people who genuinely like to read news on paper (I’m one of them) and is willing to continue paying subscription prices to get it on paper.

There are digital-only publications that have grown up on the internet, and make plenty of money (Engadget, Huffington Post, etc). There are publications that treat the internet largely as a marketing platform (I’d argue that’s The Stranger in Seattle), and do OK.

Serving both audiences is a lot harder than serving one audience, because they want different things. Most newspapers are trying to figure out how their digital business can avoid cannibalizing their print business. It’s easy: pick which business you’re in.

If you’re in the print business, short-change your web site. If you’re in the web business, short-change your paper product (I’d say cripple it, but don’t kill it – it’s a great marketing vehicle for your web business).