Sepp Blatter must have had his fingers and toes well crossed over the last few days. With the World Cup Finals now over, he can breath a sign of relief that the quarter, semis and final didn’t throw up any more controversial incidents like England’s disallowed goal.

His attitude towards the adoption of a digital technology are a classic case of an organisational figurehead refusing to keep up with the pace of the real world around him. Try as he may to preserve some strange personal ideal of what is suitable for the most important sports event on the planet, one thing is inevitable, in 2014 we will have goal line (and probably far more extensive replay) technology.

His concession to ‘look into it’ only highlights how inevitably futile it is to keep up such a battle against the technology tide. Soon it will seem even more bizarrely backward than it already does that South Africa’s high profile tournament, with all its 3D replays, swooping aerial camera angles and HD slow-mo showing every flying bead of sweat, could not get in the way of a good old fashioned refereeing mistake.

There can often be valid reasons to preserve ‘traditional’ ways of doing things. But football is already transformed by media technology on every other level. Not taking advantage of replays on the pitch when the rest of the world can see them is archaic and pointless. The professional game and its audiences demand it.

To be a good leader today, you need a very different mindset. Conservatism at the top may seem steady and ‘experienced’, but it’s an approach that’s way out of touch. The ability to remain constantly open to change is vital, because rapid change is the most potent, consistent force out there. Which successful organisation has stayed on top of its game by steadfastly refusing to adopt the latest technology?

It was a worthy achievement. It also served as a reminder that the physical newspaper, with it’s blanket retail distribution and attention-grabbing headline space, still carries weight. The same highly charged editorial was displayed in the racks and kiosks of 45 different countries at the same time. Even the most viral of digital efforts would struggle to hit all those eyeballs so effectively.

Such innovation shows the way forward for the future success of print. It parallels the advantages of digital content in terms of global reach and shared ‘links’, while enjoying the unique access and political significance of the printed newspaper. Collaboration could well save the industry, and without Rupert Murdoch’s bizarre protectionist model ever having to be proved unworkable too.

Climate change is going to be the biggest story in the world for many years to come. It’s the ideal topic to unite global media, who in turn exert national pressure on politicians and promote essential local level lifestyle changes. Print may yet see it’s most powerful era.

Whatever the outcome in Copenhagen next week, the realisation is that analog and digital media have a more central role in ensuring the success of carbon reduction than the politicians. It is our collective yet individual daily decisions that will ultimately ensure any legislative targets are met. Those who inform us are charged with actually making this happen.

With that in mind, it’s time to sign up to the excellent 10:10 project, which manages to find just the right balance of personal involvement, realistic requests, positivity and an excellent media campaign. Therefore Alchemy Content is now and we look forward to seeing how the next year pans out, for newspapers, socially networked environmental campaigns and all our unsustainable carbon footprints.

The recent change in standing of our once world-leading postal service is largely down to the same technology that continues to reshape the media and many other industries. Seeing as many skilled media people still don’t have a grasp of this digital stuff, I doubt that the postal union reps are thinking ‘digitally’ about the consequences of trying to protect an outdated status quo.

Even with Lord Mandelson stressing that a strike would be “a suicidal act”, they seem intent on pressing on with action supposed to improve the deal for their members. The pace of technological change has caught most industries off guard, but Mandy isn’t just issuing idle statements about the potential demise of the Queen’s very own posties.

It’s not just the fact that banks and utilities are moving their billing (and junk mail) online, but the broadband-equipped population demands efficiency and above all immediacy in every area these days. We hear daily stories about companies planning on leaving the Royal Mail, and they really have no option. The majority of these are businesses that are successful online, including the home delivery daddy, Amazon. Trying to argue for better pay deals for an analogue workforce in a streamlined digital era is as ridiculous and futile as trying to copy-protect digital music files. Far better to accept the reality of how we live today and work out how to provide a relevant service around that.

There will be job losses, but we’re in the middle of another social revolution here. Next week may go down in its history as the moment a great institution was steam-rollered by progress, but it need not end that way.

Bringing such a seemingly unsubtle commercial tie-in, reportedly worth in excess of £100,000 into theatres, particularly for family orientated shows like pantos, is sure to make a lot of people feel very uneasy.

But this is the reality already facing TV and online in the digital age as the audience becomes more savvy at ignoring/skipping through the sponsors messages that make things possible. It’s very interesting to see the theatre industry get in there first while the broadcast regulators worry about how to relax their laws.

It may not be pretty, but developing and creating characters for ads that then take on a wider life of their own is only a reverse twist from Disney or Star Wars characters helping shift McDonalds burgers. The new patrons of the arts are the nodding cuddly toys.

As long as the audience are sufficiently media literate they should be able to take this kind of thing for what it is (something that helps keep their ticket price down for starters). And that’s a good argument for actively teaching such literacy in schools, particular in an age of Wikipedia ‘facts’ and fanatical websites on health/religion/football being absorbed by otherwise impressionable minds.

Although it feels a bit brutal to have sponsored characters leading the “oh no he’s not”s in festive stage shows, this new era of highly creative advertising delivery actually shows how far our collective cultural intelligence has had to come in a digital era. A previous generation simply wouldn’t be able to comprehend the message, but today an insurance company can make money from putting a dog into a panto without having to plaster their name everywhere. Somewhere that’s actually quite subtle.

So firstly the omnipresent Mr. Big of news publishing announces he is to begin charging for his newspaper’s online content. Then his company dramatically pulls the plug on their free The London Paper title.

It’s a huge about turn on the direction almost all media has been taking for the last few years. So is Rupert Murdoch wise or brave, foolish or foolhardy? More importantly can he, even with all his global expertise in print over decades, really know what he’s doing in a media industry struggling with the economics of giving everything away for nothing?

Of course not. He’s just reached a point where the losses are really rubbing him up the wrong way and is deciding to take some action on it because the alternative is looking really, really bleak for his financial model.

A Little Savvier

Word has it that Rupert doesn’t use a computer and can’t be contacted by email. He is certainly not a fan of digital, and this drastic move against the tide may prove to be his big mistake. The outcome is very far from certain, but to execute such a gamble, I’d prefer it if the man in charge was a little savvier with his RSS feeds.

There was a time when News International’s digital policies looked relatively visionary. The redesigned Times Online (albeit following The Guardian’s lead), and even the purchase of MySpace (before users realised it doesn’t actually work very well) seemed impressively committed to the game. While launching a freesheet in The London Paper showed an apparent desire to keep on the cutting edge of the new print market trends too. But these projects are now busy laying off staff just the same as at other, less well prepared media outlets. Throwing NI’s clout at the projects hasn’t made them better or more profitable than their analog or digital rivals. All is not well and charging for digital content looks like a fairly desperate about turn.

Forward-thinking net commentator Jeff Jarvis said in his column last week, “Newspapers have had 15 years since the launch of the internet browser to re-imagine and rebuild themselves for the reality of the post-Gutenberg age. But they didn’t. Now they are trying to reclaim old business models for a new media economy — a link economy, I call it, in which links give content value. Cut yourself off from links, behind pay walls, and you cut yourself off from the internet and its real value.”

Unfolding Story

Yes, quality newspaper journalism desperately needs to find ways to be funded sufficiently enough to survive, but the new medium still being forged online relies on access to content be as fast and easy as possible. Blocked pages, registration screens, credit card demands..? Alternatives are always a single, rapid click away.

It’s great to see Murdoch shifting this unfolding story so significantly, but I think he’s potentially lost his touch here. He’s going against the grain too strongly in a battle that for once is much bigger than his own publishing empire.

Are we watching the dawn of a new sustainable age of digital news journalism, or the violent death throes of an outdated media hierarchy? Whatever happens next, it’s going to be dramatic and of huge, lasting significance.

Watching London’s famous listings bible Time Out struggle to cope with the changes in media is a sobering experience. The title has expanded so successfully into cities around the world and its guides have earned a name that can be trusted to point you in the right direction, not into the usual tourist traps.

As a long term subscriber and a life long reader of the magazine, it forms a big part of what I identify as the experience of living, working and going out in London. Culturally it’s a key part of the fabric of this great city. Yet even a brand with such savvy urban credentials could potentially be laid to waste when technology erodes its revenue streams.

Radical Options

Despite their ongoing global expansion, it became clear it was not plain sailing for the original print publication back in the autumn, when founder and Chairman Tony Elliott announced that they were looking at a variety of radical options including becoming a free title.

As a listing-led mag, Time Out couldn’t be more threatened by the filtering capabilities of websites and mobile devices. They also have to contend with the accompanying trend for freesheet newspapers. But with plenty of good brand extensions and a nifty website of their own, what more could they actually do to maintain their position in a changing landscape? It’s almost impossible to know what’s right, so at least they are fighting a good fight. I just hope they make decisions that turn out to be good ones.

Bad Omens

Omens didn’t look good earlier this year though, as an already slimmed down mag experienced a sudden drastic drop in paper quality, without warning. The stock was so toilet-worthy I emailed them saying they had got to be joking. (This is a topic close to my heart. When I worked at DJ Magazine various publishers would occasionally spring a change in paper stock upon us. It would always be shockingly bad, the advertisers would kick off and use of better stock would eventually resume.)

I was notified by Time Out that it was only a ‘test’, and the paper did improve the following week, however it has since become regularly printed on paper that is so thin you can see much of the contents of the next spread through each page. Time Out’s USP in the digital era is that it is A MAGAZINE. Reducing the quality of the paper reduces its value over a digital equivalent, let alone a freesheet newspaper. If the mag is going to be free, then fair enough, but us subscribers are currently being given a smaller, inferior product at a time when we will be considering our options.

Dangerous Balancing Act

The departure of key editorial staff, repetition of story ideas and some glaring subediting mistakes also weaken this position. Meanwhile the frankly overwhelming coverage for advertorial tie-ins like the Get Loaded in the Park festival play a dangerously fine balancing act with our trust of the title’s independent voice.

Despite having sypmathy with their stark choices, I was left toying with the painful idea of cancelling my subscription. It is after all now a relatively expensive luxury in a world where there isn’t enough time to consume the content that is pushed my way each week.

Welcomed Advertising

It was then that I chanced upon a small ad for the fantastic Kodo drummers while flicking through an issue (and subsequently enjoyed their recent performance at the Festival Hall). And this is exactly where a physical magazine has a huge edge over its digital equivalent. Whereas on a screen the more flashing ads the more we tune out, in a listings mag colourful ads for events are exactly what you wish to see.

When digital produces something to rival to the casual physical page-flicking experience then the paper mag listings game is surely up, but for now paper has the edge on this front. The medium needs to be celebrated (as tech mag Wired shrewdly does with its touchy-feely rough covers).

Analog Apologies

So for now I remain a Time Out subscriber. Much as this blog extols the many advantages of digital media, paper and its (currently) unique analog properties need to be treated with respect rather than almost apologised for.

We’ll occasionally return to this topic, plus comment on Time Out’s progress dealing with the pace of change. It’s one brand that really should have a strong presence in the new digital world order, but as we know in this game, nothing is written in stone…