Value Creation and the Future of News Organizations

Why and how are news organizations changing? With the drive for low costs and low prices, how can the news industry create value to ensure its survival in the digital environment? Most of the contemporary challenges faced by news organizations result from changes in the media environment and media markets that have reduced the value of news and information and disrupted the existing business models of news producers. Many of these changes are the outcome of technological development. News organizations have not adequately responded to disruptions caused by the arrival of television and the Internet, social and lifestyle changes, and disengagement from traditional institutions. The value creation perspective asserts that value is in the mind of the consumer and is a measure of worth or importance placed on a product or service. Today, there are clear indications that consumers' views of the value of contemporary news and information are relatively poor given their unwillingness to make significant temporal and monetary expenditures for that content. This, in turn, might mean that much of the news and information as currently provided by many news organizations is unable to create functional, emotional and self-expressive value for its users, but also for journalists, investors, advertisers and society as a whole. Journalism and news organizations are at a decisive point in their existence. Those that choose to change and increase value for their stakeholders will have a future; those who continue on their current paths will wither.