Judy Sims, once vice president, digital media for the Toronto Star Media Group, offers up a list of lies newspaper executives might tell themselves to deflect from the reality of the crises faced by their industry:
1. “We can manage this disruption from within an integrated organisation”
2. “Print advertising reps can sell online advertising too”
3. “Aggregators are killing my business”
4. “We can recreate scarcity by putting up pay walls”
5. “Our readers paid for news in the past, they will again”
6. “There will never be enough online revenue to support our newsroom’
7. “No one will ever cover crime/health/city hall the way we do”
8. “Our readers can’t be trusted/they are idiots/they are assholes”
9. “Democracy will collapse without us”
10. “I can compete with the best digital leaders/thinkers/creators in the world without becoming an active member of the online community”
Sims gives her own take on the thinking behind the ‘lies’ and why she thinks they’re false – agree or disagree?