For months now I have been telling everyone I know to STOP READING NEWSPAPERS AND WATCHING NEWSCASTS. Why? Let me give you some background and I think the answer will be obvious.
There was a great article written in the Wharton Business School Blog, which talked about the newspaper industry today. One of the comments was that if 2008 had been a “normal” year without all the financial crisis and other issues, many newspapers would not have seen 2009. Sad? Not really. What has kept them afloat through all this you ask? FUD – Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. They have created their own version of “the sky is falling” and you better buy our paper or watch our newscast or you might miss the world coming to an end. Another word, PANIC. They have instilled panic in the minds of Americans to the point where commerce has ground to a halt and everyone is feeling the impact.
Is it real? Some of it for sure – but not the majority. For months now the papers have tried to take a simple story and turn it into something than instills FUD in people’s mind. Why? So that you, their readers will continue to buy their paper while they try to figure out how to keep their dinosaurs alive. Technology has passed them by and the need for lots of information, quick and from unbiased sources has swept the world. People want it now, in small doses and from people they feel they trust – not a reporter.
There was a great comment in the Wharton article that I wanted to share the I think sums up my perspective very nicely. “It’s fair to say that newspapers will disappear and I don’t think we should shed that big a tear for them,” says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader, co-director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative. And unlike the traumas of automobiles or real estate, the change is fundamental, not cyclical. A down economy may have sped it along, but the business model itself would have been troubled anyway. “My kids can’t imagine why anyone would read the newspaper,” Fader notes.
I couldn’t have said it better. If you want to keep the smile on your face, hope in your mind and stay the course in what you are doing in your business with your customers and employees, STOP reading and watching the FUD – you will be much happier and the fundamentals will start to work.
Have an AWESOME day!
Blaine
