The demise of traditional media has been well documented over the last few years and articles such as this and this reinforce the inevitability of it all... (Coincidentally, Seth Godin has a post related to this on his blog today as well!)
If this talk of demise is true (and I think it is) then you would think that the "traditional media" that are under such pressure would be doing everything they can to look after and retain their existing customers.
That is why I wonder every weekday why The Press would send me something that looks like this:
And on Saturdays - I get this:
The thing is, I didn't order two papers and I don't carry a Stanley knife with me either (to cut the strapping and get my paper out!). But it is obviously convenient for The Press to join two papers together (for me and my neighbour) even if it is inconvenient for me.
It is also convenient for them to wrap the paper up so tight that when I finally prise the weekday edition open it is an unreadable mess of folds.
I noted with interest the Editor of The Press lauding their new printing facilities recently (Oct 09) so the advertisers could get much better colour and detail in their adverts. He did mention that they were looking at a better method of wrapping the paper sometime in the future...
The message to me is - readers, you are less important than the advertisers, the delivery company and pretty well everyone else.
The Press has enjoyed a monopoly for years and maybe they still think that this will be enough to survive. I don't think it will be. I can get news anywhere... On my phone, my work computer, my iPod, iPad, iTouch and iWish! I like the feel of a paper but don't think that means I will put up with this forever!
This is what I need:
A paper delivered in a readable format on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
I don't need classifieds or gardening sections.
I especially don't need to see the I Do feature you seem to do every few months.
But, I would like to be able to change my mind on all the above and do it easily!
Papers and magazines throughout the world are closing down in droves - except for a few good ones whose subscriptions are increasing...(what are they doing?)
You may think I am being unreasonable - but staying still is the same as going backwards in our fast moving society, and if the newspapers want to be around they need to change!
Why is the above rant important? Because it reminds us at Medical House that what we do or don't do isn't about us, it is about our customers. Thanks to the Christchurch Press I am reminded of that every morning I go to get the paper!
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