News: Content or Service

A survey in the West pointed out the obvious: news consumption is declining. Jeff Jarvis feels that old media is still “chasing the wrong horse”: news consumers. He says that the world has moved to the engaged reader, one who wants customized news and not the one-size-fits-all version of news, wants it available when needed, not just at predetermined times. Now that’s the very definition of online news, isn’t it?

Others could (rightly) argue that personalizing news means people just read whatever views they already subscribe to, and whatever topics interest them already. Where is the expansion of horizons, they wonder? Where is the opportunity for serendipity, they lament. On the other hand, is that just editorial ego, as Jarvis wrote in another blog:
“It’s all about us, about our content, about how we want to make it, how we want to present it to you, how we organize it, how we make money on it, how we protect it.”

Like it or not, as Medium founder Ev Williams said, the Internet is “a giant machine designed to give people what they want”. To put it differently, convenience is king, not content. Because as Jarvis wrote:
“Content is that which fills something. Service is that which accomplishes something…Service is built on relevance. Relevance comes via relationships: knowing enough about someone so you can learn how to serve them better, more effectively, more efficiently, with less noise, greater value.”

Maybe news needs to reinvent itself, change from being content to becoming a service.

Of course, catchy headlines won’t hurt in the meantime. Like the xkcd comic shows how headlines of major events from the last 100 years would read today:

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