Murdoch, News ‘an empire in decline’: Scott
Oct 14
Mark Scott, the managing director of the ABC has tonight used an address to blast plans by media companies to put online content behind paywalls, hailing the decline of traditional media barons.
The speech, delivered at the University of Melbourne this evening and entitled The Fall of Rome: Media After Empire, argued that “traditional” media companies were being left behind by changes in technology and methods of distribution, as control shifts from owners of media companies, to audiences themselves. He characterised News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch as an “oligopolist” who was denying the realities of the changing media landscape.
…when you want to charge customers for something that in this era is effectively generic, that has many different free substitutes and is, by its nature ephemeral – mainly used and discarded – then the challenges you face are formidable.
Scott contended that this knowledge was known by many in the industry, and that those who denied it were headed for oblivion. He argued that the illusion of a monetisation consensus obscured the fact that other executives in the industry were “pushing [Murdoch] through the pay wall” in the hope of reaping the benefits as readers fled from News Corporation websites.
In a direct response to comments made by James Murdoch earlier this year, Scott described commercial media companies as being “after” public broadcasters.
And as his son James said recently in the UK, those pesky public broadcasters who would seek to provide quality content to the public for free should be pulled into line.
But Scott pointedly promised that the ABC’s online content would remain free, and said that he would “stand up to critics who, in the face of their own competitive pressure, will turn against the public broadcaster”. He again characterised the ABC as an important public “space for analysis and commentary”, and took a further shot at Rupert Murdoch:
…the man who just four years ago said he wanted to “make the necessary cultural changes to meet the new demands of the digital native” says he’s not going to respond to the demands of these digital natives. Instead, they – who have never in their lives paid for news online – will be asked to respond instead to his demands and start paying.
Scott highlighted the need for media organisations to accept changes in the media landscape, “empower” their audiences by providing opportunities to share and contribute content, and attempt to diversify in order to protect their assets.
He pointed to the ABC’s attempts to take advantage of the growing trend toward new media, saying that he viewed social networking sites and increasing independence on the part of news consumers as an opportunity, not a threat. The ABC chief said that instead of treating audiences with “oligopolists’ disdain”, media companies should seek instead to harness the power of audiences as creators and distributors of news content.
For its part, the Australian – owned by Murdoch’s News Limited – has described the speech as “equal parts spray and prescription”.
You can read the full text of Mark Scott’s speech courtesy of Crikey, and tell us what you think in our discussion on the Internet and the media future.
TGIF October 14th 2009