I-News. OMG. Stupidest Idea Ever
Being reported by bizjournals.com and niemanlab.org (and others), MediaNews Group has announced plans for “I-News” or “individuated news”, a system that will print your own customized newspaper on your own printer. MediaNews operates about 60 Daily newspapers in the US, about the same number of non-dailies, mostly in California, and has a few conventional broadcast operations in Alaska, and Texas.
According to a senior VP of sales and marketing, “You’ll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you’re a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you’re green-oriented,” and then have them sent to a special printer being developed for MediaNews that each customer would have at home. The home printer, connected to a phone line, could send the stories to a computer or mobile phone.
Now, it also seems like the plan is to also aggregate content from other sources and offer those up too.
Really? Wow. Personally, I’m speechless.
I’ve heard of some crazy-stupid ideas, but this one ranks pretty high. The only part of the concept I applaud is the aggregation and distribution of other’s content, however I can’t see them doing this very effectively with all the copyright issues. If they manage to re-publish competing newspaper content, legally, I’m certain it will be an administrative headache.
- Why is MediaNews getting into the hardware sales and support business? I mean, I sure hope they’ve partnered with a vendor that’s going to be managing this for them. Ask any ISP or Cable Company how big their phone rooms are just to handle the inbound calls of people saying “my email is broken”.
- Why would I want to buy (or receive, if it’s free) another device for my home that ties up my phone line? Wow, that’s just so 1992! (yes, I even had a paid subscription to Pointcast.com in 1992. It was very cool — in 1992. And even pointcast.com only required a downloaded application, not special hardware!). There is something called the internet, and a lot of people have high-speed connections. Installing a printer/modem hybrid in my home office is just, well, retarded.
- Why do I need this at all? Good grief!
This is either the flat-out worst idea ever, or I have totally missed the point, and these guys are have Nobel-sized genius brains.
I get angry with crap like this, because I still actually like newspapers and newspaper companies. But when I see really bad train-wrecks like this, it’s easy to see why so many of them are in such dire financial situations. I just hope they haven’t sunk much money down this outhouse of an idea. In fact, any money at all is too much. I can just see all the “green-oriented” people queueing up to print out a daily personal edition of their local newspaper.
Good times.
For the benefit of MediaNews execs, I offer up the following video:
However, I’m not sure they’ll see it, since they can’t print it out. The interweb has news these days, boys. You should check it out.
It’s like the future is now. I feel so honoured to see such progress :
Thank god MediaNews has figured out how to send the pictures, ads and comics. They’ve come a long way in 25 years.
Discuss.
I am working with MediaNews on this project. A few points:
- The totality of this service, both in technology and content, is not yet public. Stay tuned.
- The operative concept in I-News is choice. The demand by individuals for choice in media drives innovation and new business models. File-sharing music sites innovated and iTunes made the market. Blockbuster built a video store franchise and NetFlix brought the video store home. Starting with choice and figuring out how best to deliver that is the constant question.
- For more on the Individuated News conference this summer, check here: http://www.individuatednews.com/
I’m all for choice. I’m all for personalized news. I totally believe consumers will vote with their clicks, and purchase habits. I sure hope there’s something really extra special being offered here, because I just don’t see anyone under 60 wanting to have a special newspaper-printer-slash-modem hooked up to their homes. I’ve seen (and participated) in all kinds of newspaper experiments too, I’ve been working with them for over 9 years. I don’t think this idea has legs, but there are parts of the idea that will win (as I mentioned, the idea of aggregated content also being delivered). So, in your examples of Napster/iTunes, Blockbuster/NetFlix, etc, parts of ideas win and parts loose. VHS/Beta? Not always does the better technology win. Personalize my news, and send me a PDF (or a morning digest newsletter into my inbox). Fine! Beautiful. I get that. Great Idea. Ask me to set up a printer for my home? No. Parts of this will win. Parts of this will fail.
I wish MediaNews the best, because I don’t want to see Newspapers collapse and become obsolete. I applaud efforts to try. I applaud and pay for smart efforts.
I especially like the line,
“You’ll be able to choose the news you want about anything, whether you’re a Detroit Red Wings fan or if you’re green-oriented,”
Doesn’t using ink, electricity to print it, and paper defeat the purpose of being ‘green’???? This idea fell out of the stupid tree and hit it’s head on every branch on it’s down to the ground.
EPIC FAIL!