Wu Dao Nan Lai: Mainstream media should have the courage to abandon illusions and take the initiative to change
2024-08-24
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author:Wu Dao Nan Lai (Senior Media Person)
source:WeChat public account of "Young Journalists Magazine"
Introduction:
Only by abandoning illusions, adapting to the times, taking the initiative to change, insisting on orientation as the soul, content as king, innovation as the key, and traffic and results as the key, using Internet thinking, market thinking, and rule of law thinking to guide resource allocation, and promoting all-round changes in organizational structure, management process, operation model, discourse system, media form, platform technology, etc., can the mainstream media occupy the commanding heights in the new era's all-media communication landscape and play the role of "timpani" and "weather vane".
Recently, Shanghai Radio and Television Station integrated and optimized the urban series of "three channels and two newspapers and magazines", namely, reformed, reorganized and streamlined the Urban Channel, Oriental Film and Television, Colorful Drama, Weekly Radio and Shanghai TV.
This is the latest example of the mainstream media's proactive transformation after the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee.
In recent years, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has actively promoted the streamlining and optimization of radio and television channels and frequencies across the country, and has made great efforts to streamline and eliminate a number of channels and frequencies with small audiences, weak influence, and no development prospects. As of March 2024, a total of 144 TV channels and 52 radio frequencies have been withdrawn nationwide.
Starting from June 1 this year, Chengdu Business Daily, which was founded 30 years ago, adjusted its publication schedule and stopped publishing on weekends and holidays. Its "Warning to Readers" stated that over the past decade, the audience's habits of receiving news and information have changed again and again, the traditional newspaper market has continued to shrink, and the decline of paper media has become a global trend. Under the changing situation, we launched the new media brand "Red Star News" based on the mobile Internet in 2017, and made every effort to build it into a leading media with an audience of over 170 million. Red Star News has continued the legacy of Chengdu Business Daily, and is richer and more timely.
According to public reports, more than a hundred newspapers and periodicals have announced the cessation or suspension of publication, most of which are urban newspapers and periodicals.
If we still had illusions about the survival and development of traditional media a few years ago, now faced with the reality of huge changes in the public opinion ecology and media landscape, we have no choice but to abandon the illusions and take the initiative to change.
Abandon illusions and take the initiative to change. This is an urgent need to adapt to the rapid development of information technology.
my country has fully entered the era of mobile Internet. As of December 2023, there are 1.092 billion Internet users in my country, with an Internet penetration rate of 77.5%; 1.091 billion mobile Internet users, accounting for 99.9% of all Internet users; 1.067 billion online video users, accounting for 97.7% of all Internet users, of which 1.053 billion are short video users, accounting for 96.4% of all Internet users; and 816 million online live broadcast users, accounting for 74.7% of all Internet users.
In the era of mobile Internet, social media and short videos have become the main channels and platforms for information dissemination. According to the latest published data, Facebook has more than 3 billion monthly active users, followed by YouTube with more than 2.5 billion monthly active users, and Instagram and WhatsApp have both exceeded 2 billion. TikTok has more than 1.582 billion monthly active users, making it the fifth largest social application in the world. Tencent's first quarter 2024 financial report shows that the combined monthly active account numbers of WeChat and WeChat have reached 1.359 billion. The 2024 China Mobile Internet Semi-annual Report shows that as of June, the scale of monthly active users of mobile Internet has reached 1.235 billion, of which the number of monthly active users of short videos has reached 989 million.
The sudden rise of new media has had a huge impact on the communication channels, business models, and profit models of traditional media. In the "secondary sale" business model of traditional media, media units first sell (or provide for free) media products (such as newspapers, TV programs, online content, etc.) to end audiences, and then sell the audience's time (or attention) to advertisers or advertisers. The first sale is that the media provides information to the audience to meet the audience's demand for information; the second sale is to sell the audience's attention to advertisers. In this way, traditional mainstream media has formed a complete business closed loop and a sustainable and stable profit model. However, with the changes in information dissemination channels, most audiences no longer use mainstream media as the first entry point for obtaining information, and the profit model has been greatly impacted by the diversion of the audience.
"Where the readers and the audience are, that's where the tentacles of publicity and reporting should reach, and there the focus and foothold of publicity and ideological work should be placed." This requires the main force of mainstream media to advance into the main battlefield of mobile Internet in an all-round way, move to the main position of social media, and build a new media ecology and profit model.
Abandon illusions and take the initiative to change. This is also the inevitable requirement of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee to "promote systematic reform of mainstream media".
The Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee pointed out that "it is necessary to build a working mechanism and evaluation system that adapts to the production and dissemination of all media, and promote the systematic reform of mainstream media". The so-called systematic reform is not piecemeal, but systematic planning, focusing on top-level design, with a clear outline and a clear path; it is not a single-soldier breakthrough, but a coordinated deployment, with pillars and beams, and overall coordinated promotion, which is strategic, forward-looking and holistic. In view of the problem that some mainstream media still rely on the advantages of industry distribution and lack the endogenous driving force of integration reform, the relevant departments will seize the bull's nose of "building a working mechanism and evaluation system that adapts to the production and dissemination of all media" to comprehensively promote the systematic reform of mainstream media.
"The only way to defeat all martial arts is to be fast." Change early and take the initiative early. The Paper was founded on July 22, 2014, catching up with the bonus period of rapid growth of mobile Internet and media clients, making it easier to acquire customers and at a lower cost. After The Paper went online, Oriental Morning Post gradually reduced the newspaper's pages and officially ceased publication on January 1, 2017, with all employees completely transformed. Based on its large user base and communication value, The Paper has achieved both social and economic benefits. Its annual revenue has grown from tens of millions of yuan in the early days to hundreds of millions of yuan per year, and has developed from the traditional "advertising + copyright" income structure to the current diversified income structure of "advertising + copyright + government affairs + think tank + technology output". Through systematic changes, The Paper has become a typical example of my country's mainstream media building an independent and controllable platform, providing useful experience for similar mainstream media in China.
“The wise adapt to the times; the knowledgeable act according to circumstances.” Only by abandoning illusions, adapting to the times, taking the initiative to change, insisting on orientation as the soul, content as king, innovation as the key, and traffic and results as the key, using Internet thinking, market thinking, and rule of law thinking to guide resource allocation, and promoting all-round changes in organizational structure, management process, operating model, discourse system, media form, platform technology, etc., can the mainstream media occupy the commanding heights in the new era's all-media communication landscape and play the role of "timpani" and "weather vane".
