iPhone is the future of newspapers

Apple iPhone. Rah rah, hype, hype, blah, blah. All the noise about the Apple iPhone is just a heap of marketing bumpf designed to sell product and you can live without it, right?

Hmmm. I too was a sceptic until a cancelled meeting allowed me to play with one at the Apple Store to fill in some time. (And yes, I know what you’re thinking – Apple stores, what is it with them? The whole Apple lifestyle idea – do people realise how gullible they’re being?) And then I absolutely HAD to have one. Now I know that I have the future of newspapers in the palm of my hand.

Of course, the really terrifying thing about having the future of newspapers in the palm of your hand is the realisation that the bulk of the industry you represent has no idea how it works, doesn’t believe in it much anyway, still thinks email is nifty, thinks staff should report back to the office to use a computer and communication is a cost that should be slashed in these tough economic times.

But the iPhone and the new generation Blackberries and 3G phones is very, very important to newspapers. So important that if the universe granted me one wish tomorrow, it would be that every senior (and very senior) executive in my company was given one and locked in a room until they became proficient at using it. That would only take about half an hour, because it isn’t rocket science. (That would be my wish, even before the desire for world peace, because if newspaper senior execs could get their brains around how iPhone technology could revolutionise their business, world peace would be solved pretty shortly afterwards. I mean that as a compliment, gentlemen.)

Why is the iPhone so revolutionary for our industry? (Apologies to everyone who already has an iPhone or has converted to 3G – I’m assuming it’s not many of you as this is running in the magazine, not online.)

For a start, an iPhone is not a phone. At the risk of sounding like a press release, it is a palm sized device that captures every single way people communicate and use media today in one handy pocket-sized gadget.

Think about that for a minute. Every way – from phone calls to email, to Facebook to Twitters, to online, to texting, to instant messaging, to listening to music, watching video or downloaded audio. It is the future of media because it brings everything together and makes communication seamless and simple. It doesn’t insist that you choose one or the other. It lets you choose anything.

And not only that, it doesn’t dictate how you pay for it, or access it. While I coveted my husband’s Blackberry, I was always a sceptic because he only used text, email and phone because the online access and downloads were so expensive on the mobile network. The iPhone however allows me to do the heavy grunt work of downloads via my computer, and/or wifi.

The iPhone is the future of media because it fundamentally changes the ground rules – again.

And the fundamental that it changes is that consumer trends are now totally trumping industry trends, according to the November 2008 report Top 15 Trend Questions and Answers from the independent consumer trends firm trendwatching.com.

“Focusing solely on your own industry will obscure the fact that in economies of abundance, consumers are increasingly spending their ‘play money’ on goods and services that net them the experience, the indulgence, the excitement, the satisfaction that they are looking for at a specific moment,” the report says.

Want to know the best way to future proof your business? Stop being amazed at the changes The Guardian or The Washington Post have introduced and look at what companies like Apple, Ikea, BMW and Virgin are doing and get creative about how it can apply to the news business. How can newspapers make sure consumers get the satisfaction of the newspaper experience at any given moment anywhere in any application – not just over breakfast. And how can we monetise that?

“Consumer expectations are often set outside your own industry,” trendwatching.com writes. “Limiting yourself to your own industry will make you miss important changes in consumer expectations and will thus put you at risk of disappointing or even annoying consumers.”

So here are some more fundamental truths of the newspaper industry right now: you cannot purport to be a media company in 2009 if you are only interested in hard copy print. You cannot purport to be a media company in 2009 if you think applications like Facebook and Twitter are irrelevant to your business and something your staff just waste time on during the day.

Yes, yes, it’s the recession and money for new ventures is non-existent. But there will be people in your company that are intuitively connected to this thinking. Let them get together. Listen to their ideas. Dare to let them try it out.

If you believe that the financial future of your company is connected to digital, you need to stop thinking that involves setting up and running an online news site of excellence with some advertising attached.

Digital is not just online any more. Digital is now in the palm of your hand. And it’s so easy, even a newspaper executive can operate and even have fun with it.

Hallelujah.

This piece first appeared in the INMA Ideas magazine. See www.inma.org