Old vs. New

The rapid adoption of Gutenberg’s printing press resulted in the propagation of books and newspapers, which subsequently became the mediums of choice to spread information. Such mediums, along with more recent ones, like radio,television and the telephone, are now considered old media.

The times are always changing and so are the ways in which we communicate. The continuous advances in information technologies are facilitating the exchange of ideas and information and changing our content consumption habits. Such innovations are simultaneously threatening old media’s relevance and business models.

Just a week ago music publishers, who are reluctant to adapt to new changes in the marketplace, went against the iTunes store looking to collect fees for providing 30-second song samples (read more here). An act that comes up as greedy, since song samples are supposed to provide a preview to users, so they can make informed purchase decisions.

The newspaper industry is also going through difficult times, specially after the current downturn in the economy,  mostly because they are competing against online websites for readers and advertisers. Most newspapers are offering digital versions of their content online in an effort to maintain their market share, but this doesn’t necessarily guaranteed good results, as noted in an article by Stephanie Clifford from The New York Times. Previous advertisers are not necessarily keeping their business with newspaper’s online editions.

Changes are also taking place in the book industry, specially after Google took the task to digitalize a massive amount of books and make them available. According to some critics this would violate copyrights. Digitalized books are now being offered as ebooks and audiobooks, such changes in the marketplace are raising new issues, such as ownership. Recently Amazon deleted purchased books from many customers’ Kindles.

Old media is converging with new media and during the process I’m sure the clashes will continue, some business models will die and others will flourish giving birth to new industries.