Five minutes, five questions with G&M publisher Philip Crawley
Crawley tells the Canadian Marketing Association a few things in a video podcast:
1. He said the new-look, full-colour Globe and Mail that will come out in the fall of 2010 will “change the way you think of newspapers. It will not look like the newspapers you currently seen.”
2. It's not just about newspapers, but it's about mobile, online — and other platforms. “We continue to look at this and say, 'Where's the money?' There's still a lot of money in print, and there will be for certain kinds of newspapers for quite a while to come.”
He doesn't forsee the Globe's demise in the way that about 40 U.S. newspapers have died in the past year, partly as a result of a vicious recession.
3. 
Online ad revenue is still a fraction of print revenues, even though it's growing quickly. “It's not just about ad revenue. There's other forms of monetizing the content, which is the big subject of the moment. (News Corp. CEO) Rupert Murdoch is out there just the other day saying, 'We're going to start charging for all of our websites.' Well, I think that horse has left the barn.” It's not that easy. The Globe has been successful in getting people to subscribe to Globe Investor Gold. But people won't pay for content that's freely available elsewhere.
4. Linked is the way to go. “Threatening to sue Google doesn't make sense to me.” Papers must work with the Googles and the portals.
5. Marketers should have faith in print and the fact that the owners of the business who do get this understand the value of content — and data. “We believe there's going to be long-term value creation for us.”
H/T to Neil Sanderson.