Consortium desconstruction (or who bets against Google?)


A TV guy takes a long look at the newspaper-Yahoo! deal and finds no envy.

TV New Media consultant Terry Heaton says the deal (known as the Yahoo! Newspaper Consortium) poses risks to newspapers’ ability to have a return on investment and ignores the shadow across Internetland that is Google.

Course that is the damnable part of risk-taking — it involves risks, uncertainties that have to play out.

Heaton’s better option is “the creation of locals networks and a local ad network that serves
both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets.” Huh? That is essentially what newspapers have been trying to do all along with limited success and will continue to try to do even with the Yahoo! deal.  He is right that the Yahoo! framework’s scale is requiring tremendous focus, substantial resources and more bodies to execute. It’s certainly not a half-hearted bet.

An interesting outside-looking-in analysis. Give it a read.