e-remediable

In a recent post, I referred to the the interview (in French) of Jean-Marie Colombani in L’Express. As the editor of one of the 3 national daily newspapers in France, he advocated for the development of the online edition of Le Monde, on the Financial Times model.

Today, the journalists of Le Monde decided not to follow his path, putting an end to his 12 years long career as the editor of the daily.

Obviously, other reasons led to this choice. French written press is undergoing deep crisis. The last presidential election uncovered people mistrust in the media as a whole, and journalists on the front line.

But Colombani’s inspired opinion on the written press future was undoubtedly too controversial in such a conservative industry. Wait to see his successor views on this subject …

“Imagine a world, one easily conceivable today, where governments, businesses, lobbyists, candidates, churches, and social movements deliver information directly to citizens on home computers. Journalism is momentarily abolished. Citizens tap into any information source they want on computer networks. They also send their own information and their own commentary; they are as easily disseminators as recipients of news.”

This accurate prediction looks like a definition of the so called “web 2.0” era. It has been formulated in 1995 (yes, 12 years ago!) by Michael Schudson in The Power of News. His point was that in such a world, professional journalism would necessarily reappear to give legitimacy to information sorting it among noisy environment.

The issue of the future of the press industry is even more rising in a French media landscape undergoing heavy reshuffling.

In May 14^th issue of L’Express, Jean Marie Colombani, the editor of the French daily Le Monde, explains his vision of the press future in the short-mid term. According to him, his fellow journalists should not worry that much about the expected decline of newspaper sales. The future lies in the web. That does not sound to be original piece of thought, but in France, coming from the editor of an established paper, it’s just revolutionary.

Web 2.0 challenges the current business model of most media industries, and especially the press. Since information is now a few clicks away from any laptop computer or cell-phone, there is no more point to spend money to get a newspaper. But when you buy a newspaper, are you paying for the raw material used (paper and ink) or for the service provided by journalists, that is checking sources of information and confronting them (either from a partial standpoint or not, here is not the point)? Can this mission be fulfilled through the Internet? Yes, and according to me the need for professional journalism is even more obvious in overcrowded information landscape.

Whereas the rest of the world seems to be anticipating the current shift in the press industry, french press moguls are trying to withdraw from the industry. On the one hand, the Financial Times has been pushing its online edition for years, making it a worldwide reference for financial information (it doesn’t compete anymore with printed financial press, but with RSS aggregators like Yahoo Finance). On the other hand, French press stakeholders are reluctant to acknowledge the decline of the historical information channel that is newspaper.

In a report to the French minister of cultural affairs, Marc Tessier, the president of France Televisions (the French publicly owned TV group), suggested to create an “Internet Press” label, to distinguish professional journalists as credible and legitimate source of information. I’m sure this measure aiming to save a declining business model would be counterproductive. Bloggers don’t claim to be journalists. Professional journalists own assets that bloggers don’t have: multiple and checked information sources, financial support of their company to conduct deep investigations, and the only acceptable label that is the name of the newspaper and its legitimacy. In the current noisy media landscape, they are now responsible to keep and reinforce this historically built legitimacy.

If I had not decided to start blogging this month I might never have started.

3 events led me to do so :

• The Web 3 convention, organized by Loïc Le Meur (HEC Alumni, french guru of blogging whose company is hosting this blog). More than the two previous ones which were focused on the bloggers community, this convention was opened to the outside (real ?) world. Two candidates to the french presidential election, one peace Nobel Price owner, many web-entreprenors, but also “brick & mortar” firms representatives …

• The Person of The Year 2006 in Time Magazine : “You”, as the hero of the new information era. Did they lack relevant candidates to receive this prize or is it only a very good buzz marketing campaign ? Anyway, this choice highlights the main difference between the first internet revolution (Web 1.0), whose firms fosters the so-called “bubble”, and the current one (Web 2.0), whose obvious unifying feature lies in content personalization (e.g. Google with news, Last.fm with music, Youtube with video, or Vox with blogs). As if new economy firms got more mature and focused now on the Internet main competitive advantage : interactivity, making information feeds more and more bilateral.

• Last but not least, a friend’s blog about IT (Tech IT Easy) which reached new trafic peaks. I must admit that I was quite admirative of his discipline in posting everyday, and starting blogging became a new challenge for me.

Information business model is experimenting a true revolution since everyone is a potential information-provider and above all acts as an information provider. This increase in range of information sources, added to the popularization of main information chanels (pictures, video, audio, text) challenges traditionnal media companies. French newspapers are one the verge of bankruptcy and the music and cinema industries are deeply suffering from P2P. Most innovative companies can take up the challenge : The Financial Times makes money thanks to its online edition, Apple and its ITunes Music Store sold more than 1 billion tracks while settling its IPod as a standard of the market.

I and Romain will do our best to update this blog as frequently as possible. In order to reach the largest public possible, I will post in English and Romain in French. Don’t hesitate to leave comments on our posts: exchanging ideas is the best way to increase one’s level.

And guys, one last reminder, you’re the person of the year, yes, you. You control the information age. Welcome to your world.