Final Word from Friday, January 7, 2011



The biggest problem of the mass media is that they are for the masses. The masses are the least-loyal constituency, they are the most cost-conscious, and they are the least in need of the services being offered. In the pre-internet and pre-crisis age, this didn't particularly matter, because publishers had monopolies or oligopolies, and the masses had few places to go for news and information. In the new age, those who target the masses are in the precise opposite situation from before. They will be trounced, financially speaking, by those who serve a captive audience willing to pay a serious price - such as Bloomberg or Reuter - or by those others with a closed delivery system - such as Apple iTunes - that will profit as publishers die trying to serve a mass audience that no longer exists. Czech publishers, like their global colleagues, are busy trying to wow us with their new mobile applications that make their products ubiquitous. Survival, though, depends on finding a model that makes news and information scarce again.[Czech Republic publishing newspapers Thomson Reuters]

Glossary of difficult words

constituency - a body of customers or supporters; a body of voters in a specified area;

cost-conscious - especially aware or preoccupied with price;

to trounce - to defeat heavily in a contest;

captive - having no freedom to choose alternatives or to avoid something;

to wow someone - to impress and excite someone greatly;

ubiquitous - present, appearing or found everywhere;

scarce - occurring in small numbers or quantities; rare.

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