Seth Godin and The New York Times

The New York Times is arguably the best newspaper in the world, second only to The Wall Street Journal. But The Times is no different than any other newspaper in that they’re all having trouble adjusting to the world of new media.

Seth Godin has written an excellent post on The Times and the issues it faces. The entire post is worth a read. Here are some highlights for those who want the key points:

“Page by page, section by section, the influence of the New York Times is fading away. Great people on an important mission, but their footprint is shrinking and the company is losing stock value and cash and power and the ability to have the impact that they might.

When you think about your business, realize that it is a combination of assets and constraints. The Times understood both, but suddenly, the constraints changed. Now, it’s possible for a single individual with a Typepad account to reach more people than almost any newspaper in the country can. Loosen one constraint and the game changes. That leaves you with the assets, for a while anyway.

The people I know at the Times are smart, driven, honest and on a mission to do great work. The people didn’t fail the system, the system failed them.

Do the people running the Times know more about running a newspaper or building ideas that spread profitably online? How about the people running your organization? Odds are, they’re great at yesterday’s business.

I guess it’s about the difference between:

senior management playing defense, supporting and protecting the status quo and avoiding offending the elders upstairs vs.
using existing momentum and clout to build assets for the next business.”

Well said, Mr. Godin.