Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words — or, in this case, a chart:
I don’t think this LinkedIn chart above tells us anything we didn’t already know. Newspapers are in flux. Dying might be a better word. Transforming, however, for many savvy enough to make the right moves to survive (and possibly thrive in a new era of massively distributed content).
Media companies continue to morph as the runaway train known as social media/networking continues to enrapture and entire generation. Case in point: CNN’s rumored $200 million acquisition of Mashable.
A new type of media conglomerate will emerge; one that takes hardcore newsrooms – replete with active, in-the-field journalists – and combines it with distributed, social reporting, and blogs.
One concern I have over AOL’s approach is the lack of a traditional, hardened newsroom. When they acquired HuffPo, then TechCrunch, Engadget and others it amassed a Greatest Hits of Blogs. But not necessarily a viable, long-term news model – Arianna will keep pushing forward. We’ll see. It’s still early.
Clearly pageviews are the new circulation numbers… and we’re well into a mobile, socially connected readership that is just as happy getting its news from a quality upstart like VentureBeat or a well-run hyper-local news site like Berkeleyside then it is from recognized brands such as The Wall Street Journal and New York Times.
Also of note in the above chart, is venture capital which has shown a nice uptick, largely in part thanks to the mini-bubble emerging around social start-ups and mobile apps. Scan SXSW headlines to see what I mean. Who will be the next Foursquare or Twitter?