These are the slides for a presentation at Webcom 2009 in Montreal on Oct. 22, 2009. A version of this talk is available on Vimeo. In that version, you can hear me narrate the presentation. The text of this talk is also available on my blog at www.johntemple.net. This talk expands upon my speech at the UC Berkeley Media Technology Summit at the end of September at Google headquarters in the Silicon Valley. This talk places what happened to the Rocky in the larger context of what was happening on the Internet at the same time and what was happening in our society.
Did the Internet kill the Rocky Mountain News? And if it did, what can we learn from its death?
1.
2.
3. Did the Internet kill
the Rocky Mountain News?
And, if it did, what can we learn from its death?
John Temple
4.
5. The Twitter answer
YES and no. Internet the fundamental cause
of death. Economic collapse the final blow.
Denver could not support two general
interest newspapers.
14. “You are the model of
what a great newspaper should be.
It’s a tragedy for the industry
that you disappear.”
- Rich Boehne, President of E.W. Scripps Co.
33. “We just couldn’t show that it was
having any measurable impact on
retention of print subscribers and
it wasn’t producing revenue.”
- Former A La Carte executive
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36. TO OUR READERS
Rocky Mountain News (CO) - Thursday, February 29, 1996
Author/Byline: Bob Burdick, Editor
Edition: Regional
Section: Local
Page: 2A
I never have been much good at
saying goodbye. But that is my
task today for many loyal readers
of the Rocky Mountain News.
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40. You have to have
a strategy and
you have to be
committed to pursuing it.
Lesson # 3
95. Finally, the main newspaper
cannot be allowed to dictate
what the future should look like.
96. Lessons from the Rocky Mountain News
1. Know what business you’re in.
2. Know your customers.
3. Know your competition.
4. Know your goal.
5. Have a strategy and be committed to pursuing it.
6. Measure, measure, measure.
7. Keep new ventures free from the rules of the old.
8. Let the people running a new venture do what’s best
for their business, regardless of the potential impact
on the old.
9. To compete in a new medium, you have to
understand it.
10. Invest in R&D.