Do you want to be the windshield... or the bug?

There's an interesting discussion emerging over at WebmasterWorld.com about the potential for online entrepreneurs to take advantage of struggling print newspapers: Online advertising killing newspapers?

Quote:

Many newspapers are cutting back, making smaller papers, consolidating efforts, etc. I read this week that just 2 years ago the McClatchy chain of newspapers was worth in the neighborhood of $5 billion and now it's around $500 million.

The readers, or former readers, of these papers will be looking elsewhere for news and information. This is an excellent opportunity for AdSense publishers to provide what they are looking for and earn a nice income at the same time.

It will probably take more than articles written by $10 freelance writers, consolidated feeds, etc., but a huge opportunity exists to those who take advantage wisely. Isn't focusing on that opportunity a lot more productive than worrying over stuck stats, "advertisers cutting back", long holiday weekends, etc?

Welcome to my world. Heck, yeah, there's a huge opportunity here, but at this point -- due to the current economics of a high-competition, low-cost, diversified information market -- these are opportunities more easily available to individuals than large organizations.

I was speaking to a colleague yesterday who was noting the difficulty that large organizations are having in getting start-up concepts funded, either from external or internal sources. Investors want to see functional sites. But organizations want funding in place before committing to launch. Catch-22.

Individuals, meanwhile, can throw up a site and grab an audience while big organizations work through a mission statement.

Another example: I often told by college students: "Look, if you're hiring for a TV network and you've got two candidates to choose from, one with great clips from their campus TV station and the other with a video blog with 100,000 subscribers, who are you going to pick?

"The video blogger. Every single time. Because by hiring her, you are not only getting her talent, you are getting her audience. And audience is coin of the realm in media."

The lesson? If you are working for a news organization, don't wait around for your bosses to figure it out. Get online and start making your own future, if you want to stay in this business.

Robert Niles also can be found at http://www.themeparkinsider.com