150 Year Success Story Folds

Rocky Mountain News No More

After 150 years The Rocky Mountain News ceases publishing Friday. Another iconic newspaper down the drain. An example of not keeping up with change and printing content that people want. There are many theories as to what the primary problem is. The method of delivery comes in to play, but ultimately the issue is content.

Unfortunately, as the heat is applied economically management tends to take the focus off content and into revenue exclusively. The content degrades slowly over the years, with no apparent negative effect on readership or revenue. But all of the sudden at some point the threshold is crossed and nobody's listening, nobody's advertising, and ultimately nobody has a job.

Radio is experiencing a similar process. It's slower, less dramatic, but potentially just as catastrophic. If we keep the focus on revenue only, making excuses for content we know is poison, we may go the way of newspapers.

There is hope for radio. Some companies get it. We've been very fortunate that our affiliates remain focused on content quality, believing that revenue will eventually catch up. Let's hope that people don't leave radio the way they did newspapers. Radios delivery method is big positive, but does not inoculate us from the 3 most important things in media: content, content, content.