Obama and the E-world

I watched the inauguration of President Obama on TV and online, simultaneously (Sky and bbc.co.uk, to be exact). I also sent messages to other like-minded individuals on my Facebook page. A few friends sent me SMS messages saying "wasn't that great?" or "did you hear him say.." I cried when Aretha sang and laughed at the funny bits of the benediction about yellow people being mellow and red men getting ahead, not to mention white people doing what's right...and of course I was thrilled to see Itzak Perlman and Yo-yo Ma play...and the speech. I googled the speech afterwards to read it again. And this morning, ie the day after, I read bits of the speech again  in a newspaper, The Guardian, to be exact. 

The point is that I was consuming the inauguration in oh so many ways and only one -and a day later - was a newspaper. 

So what does this mean for the future of newspapers? 

This morning I was at the press conference for the UK regulator Ofcom to disclose its recommendations for how to restructure UK broadcasting to meet the digital age and preserve public service programming (ie so it all doesn't become Big Brother and Pop Idol). They have proposed some radical measures, key among them the idea of merging Channel 4 into a joint venture or partnership with (possibly) Five or BBC Worldwide.  But in the hallway before we went into the conference I had a conversation with the FT's media correspondent which was more revealing of the changes we are facing in the economics of media. He had just broken the story about the Russian oligarch (and former KGB agent) Alexander Lebedev buying the Evening Standard for £1. He was chuffed because the FT had it on their website an hour before the Guardian. 

And that of course sums up the new universe we find ourselves living in: always connected means that digital scoops  and Facebook conversations and SMS chats and tweets are more relevant than the paper delivered the next day. Is it any wonder why the Evening Standard sold so cheap? Is it any wonder why Channel 4's star news presenter Jon Snow has started a blog, snowblog? Snow's Blog

And it is going to get more crazy before it gets better. So why does Ofcom prefer a linkup between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide versus Channel 4 and Five? Because BBC Worldwide is a more robust, more diversified entity with deeper resources. And in this climate of financial fallout, that counts for a lot. Newspapers are selling for a pound. But TV stations are not far behind. Just look at the music industry if you need a roadmap. FT Article on music biz