Information gathering has become a chore. Who do you believe? I’m fast drifting towards a simple answer: no one. Research shows I’m not alone, as media savvy consumers are seeking more and more sources on more and more platforms.
MORE.
As the Pew Research Center has reported, 92% of Americans now get their news from multiple platforms.
Of those that get their news online, 75% get their news from emails forwarded to them, or from social networking sites. 52%, in turn, share that information even more broadly.
McKinsey found that consumers were reaching for as many as 16 different news brands each week. Brand promiscuity has become the norm, it seems. It’s not about one or two newspapers and your favorite network news show anymore. (Dear young people: it was that way within your lifetime!)
News is now mobile: 50% of Americans now have a mobile device (smartphone or tablet), and 2/3 of them get news there. The evidence is also that the more devices a person has, the more sources of news they use. More means more.
Here’s my problem: I don’t want more. I don’t want an aggregator. I want a curator.
I want a news brand that I can trust to get me the information I’m looking for. I should be able to influence the kinds of stories I want (no more stories on abortion, gun control or the fiscal cliff part 2, please).
I’ve talked to Michael, my twenty-something news hound and talk radio listener … who has loudly proclaimed his desire to never subscribe to a printed newspaper. He’s currently getting his news primarily on his smartphone, and he frequently uses crowdsourcing to get it. He’s got journalists, friends and organizations that he follows on twitter, blog subscriptions, and email feeds from favorite sites.
No printed newspapers. You won’t find him watching TV news regularly, either. Old media isn’t part of his world.
I still cling to my daily newspaper, but I’m increasingly seeking email and online sources from a broad range of opinions. I don’t trust either side of the political debate, so I’m reading some Huffington Post along with some Glenn Beck. I guess I’m looking for more cringe in my news consumption.
And I’m getting it. And I regularly cringe reading the LA Times, too. Did you hear? They’re not bankrupt anymore. Too bad they had to fire so many and shrink their product to a shadow of what it was.
Journalism, I mourn for thee.
Most of Google’s ad revenues are for sponsored search results, not traditional display advertising. Journalists used to be trusted to report the news you wanted to read … now, you have to search for what you want. That’s apparently the only revenue model that’s working, as Google has surpassed ALL AMERICAN PRINT PUBLICATIONS in advertising.
More
Young People Don’t Read Newspapers
Tablet Owners Consume More News that Non-Owners
Well, here’s a hearty AMEN to this post.
A curator would be great!