There is a convenience store located just outside the back exit of my neighborhood. Though it is out of the way, I like to occasionally stop by on my way to work. It is new construction, clean and has a cheerful lady running it each morning. She’s the quintessential Southern store attendant, calling me names like “sweetie” and “honey”. I recently caught her upset about a missed delivery, it was the culprit of the missed delivery that was most surprising to me: The Birmingham News.
I was surprised on many fronts. First, I had no idea they still sold a physical copy of the printed newspaper. I thought they had long since moved all but the Sunday paper to AL.com. Second, I was stunned at how thin the printed copy had become. My college transcript is thicker – six years of undergrad will do that. Finally, I was flabbergasted at the price being charged for The Birmingham News: $3.50 for a Wednesday or Friday edition, she told me, and $5.50 for the Sunday paper!
In the absolute prime of The Birmingham News, they might’ve had the temerity to ask a price approaching that for the Black Friday copy that was approximately the size of a Mini Cooper. But $3.50 can buy a lot of things in a convenience store and almost get you a full gallon of gas while you are there.
We are all in danger of being the newspaper. It was once the unquestioned leader in the media world. It was where the vast majority of news broke. It caused people to rush to the end of their driveway in slippers and a robe to see what they missed while they slept. It accompanied people on trains, subways and lonely breakfast meals in diners. Then, one day, someone yelled “STOP THE PRESSES!” and they literally never fired some of them back up.
Where did it all go wrong? Was it the initial hesitancy to embrace the burgeoning reach of the internet? Was it the insistence on charging for the stories when they finally jumped online or did they give too much away for free when they should’ve charged more? These questions, of course, are rhetorical and not very instructive for the printed newspapers. They are dead and the cause of death isn’t going to make the family feel any better.
Death comes for all of us and even, especially, heritage media sources are not immune. Fewer people watch their favorite network shows live. Fewer people choose to listen to music over the air on terrestrial radio. Fewer people will visit websites for news and features. All these things are inevitable and will only get worse. Pretending they aren’t is buying the lie that sunk the newspaper industry.
We have to be nimble as an industry and be willing to try new and different things, even if they fail. The batting order of people lined up to take their cuts at CNN for the disaster that was CNN+ was deeper than the 1927 Yankees. Plenty of those criticisms are valid. While the execution was, clearly, poorly thought out, I’ll give CNN credit for trying. Business as usual had created a steady decline for CNN for a couple of decades now. Continuing that model would land them on the same sad rack as the newspapers in my neighborhood convenience store.
CNN+ was their attempt to corral the elusive generations that expect everything on demand. My 17-year-old daughter is in that generation. We moved into our current house in 2015, she was almost 12 at the time and I had decided to allow her to have a TV in her room. We are a DIRECTV family (the only way to watch every Miami Dolphins game in Birmingham) and I asked her if she would like a receiver in her room.
Her answer floored me: “No thanks, I’d rather just watch Netflix or YouTube.”
One of the seminal moments of my adolescence was the day the cable box was connected to the TV in my bedroom. Here’s my offspring turning up her nose at access to the all-you-can-eat buffet of satellite television.
CNN was trying to find a plan that could one day appeal to my daughter. I admire bold moves, even if they fail. That said, maybe don’t fail to the tune of $300 Million, if possible. That large of a failure is an indictment on the decision makers at CNN. While bold, the plan was clearly flawed but, as Alfred Lord Tennyson famously said: “It’s better to have tried and failed than to live life wondering what would’ve happened if I had tried.” All CNN must do is look at the balance sheet to know they tried and failed but, at least they now know.
I am not certain if Bill Gates or Nick Saban was the first to coin the phrase, “Success is a lousy teacher” but there is a great deal to learn from that. Two men at the top of their respective fields understand the importance of being bold even if you fail.
Granted, it was an expensive failure and lesson for CNN but a bold move was required. The same will be required of anyone with ambitions to stay in the media for any extended period. Our industry will be shaped by the ones bold enough to roll the dice. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck on that newsstand in a convenience store.
Ryan Brown is a columnist for Barrett Sports Media, and a co-host of the popular sports audio/video show ‘The Next Round’ formerly known as JOX Roundtable, which previously aired on WJOX in Birmingham. You can find him on Twitter @RyanBrownLive and follow his show @NextRoundLive.
