Ken Kurson: The Media Industry is Changing

Ken Kurson led and served as the editor in chief of Observer, managing The New York Observer and Commercial Observer for an extensive period of time. During his tenure at the publication, Kurson created an environment where many young and savvy journalists thrived and grew in a way that has led them to leading tremendous careers in journalism at various outlets to this day. 

The changes coming to the media industry are certainly no secret. Many of these changes have already taken effect, and people by now are very well aware of it . Ken Kurson has been at the center of these changes, having been exposed in a very remarkable fashion to the transitions of media properties over the last few years from print to digital media platforms. These changes have been fundamental to many news properties in their efforts to ensure that they have a more sustainable economic model.

Indeed it  is the economics of the journalism industry that have spurred many of the changes that have come about in recent years. Most notably of course have been the changes from the print outlets to the digital media world, where so many media properties are presently concentrated. Indeed these changes have wrought various advantages and disadvantages to media properties. Some have utilized these changes in a way to digitally transform their business models for the better. 

Ken Kurson argues that they have certainly created an additional source of advertising revenue for these media properties. But beyond the streams of revenue thats value cannot possibly be understated given the life support many media properties are under; there are other benefits that have come with this transition to a more digital-centric media environment. 

Those include the ability for an editor, his or her staff, and also the marketing departments at many of these outlets, to be able to better comprehend and understand the tastes, interests and desires of the members of their audience when it  comes to journalism. This is such a remarkably important advantage that exists for editors and their staffs that never did pre-dating this digital revolution in the media landscape. 

Thanks to Google analytics, publishers and the marketing teams at many outlets are able to analyze the amount of time readers are spending reading a specific piece of their journalistic work. They can also identify the reporters whose work seems to be getting the most amount of traffic and clicks on their stories. Of course, the subjects and topics that the respective outlet is covering is also important. And this tool provides the media properties’ executives with the unique ability to identify which topics and stories readers are finding most interesting.

Gauging the popularity of stories according to reader’s interest affords publishers the ability to create news for their media property that serves as a more accurate reflection of their reader’s interests and desires. This in turn leads to increased readership; and of course, it  also can lead to increased levels of engagement among audience members.

Book and Film Globe is an example of an outlet that has succeeded in doing just that. The outlet has grown exponentially in terms of its audience base; and it  has developed its readership in tremendously effective ways. These changes in the media industry are here to stay; and it’s in the hands of savvy media entrepreneurs and editors to harness these changes to constructively develop their media outlets’ audiences in ways that promote top-tier and quality reporting, but also promotes engagement between their outlet and their audience members.