I couldn’t help noticing this item from the our Koolauloa Neighborhood Board #28 minutes from it’s Nov. 12, 2009 meeting:
‘No Parking’ Sign Needed: Residents raised concern regarding Hau’ula Loop Trail, and the fact that tourists should not be parking in that area due to a high probability that their vehicle will be broken into.
I guess this opens up a whole new area of official policy.
“No parking, or you will be ripped off.”
After my entry the other day about the commodification of news, I ran another article with the same starting point (TV News in a Postmodern World News as a Commodity by Terry Heaton.
In the world of business economics, few words frighten the market leader like “commoditization” or “commodification.” In plain English, this means that the market for a unique, branded product that the leader produces is transformed into one that’s based purely on price. It takes time, and competition is the cause, but over the lifetime of many products — especially those that cross the line from luxury to necessity — they become commoditized.
Heaton uses gasoline as a product that went through the process of commodification, briefly tracing its history from the period when oil companies spent big bucks to try to differentiate their own brands of gas, to the present when, as Heaton says, “people make decisions based on the price sign, which side of the street it’s on, or what’s inside the convenience store.”
What does this mean for news? I’ll let you read the rest of his article.
Still on media issues, my friend Chuck Smith blogged over the weekend about his recent experience getting a book into press and, then, quickly revised in light of reader feedback.
While hand-wringing pundits focus on the waning of print media, few look at the immense advantages of New Media publishing.
His comparison of traditional book publishing and the new world of publishing are worth reading and contemplating.
And now, it’s Monday–time to meet two of our favorite Kaaawa morning dogs, Mr. Piko and his new friend, Mr. Murphy. I have to say that they aren’t always awake yet when we walk past in the morning, and some days the tide is too high and we have to skip their stretch of beach. But when we connect, they’re about as good as it gets.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Mahalo for da recommend, Ian. I notice our mutual writer friend Gigi is assembling a new book and is considering self-publishing.
In a sense, print-on-demand publishing is itself becoming commoditized. It used to be that the author had to pay thousands of dollars to have a “vanity press” publish a few hundred copies of their book. Now it’s free to “publish” your book and get it listed on amazon.com. Not one copy is printed until someone orders it.
The money is ridiculously better for POD authors. My brother has several books published by mainstream publishers. His backlisted books sold 84 copies in the last few months and he received $45. I earn almost 6 or 7 times as much on my POD title because there is no wholesaler or publisher to take most of the money.
Ironically, publishers now do almost no promotion and offer almost no advance. So the author still gets little money and has to do the promotion herself/himself.
The same thing is happening in the music world. can films be far behind?
The No Parking signs should be placed at nearly every trailhead on Oahu then, not just Hau’ula. It’s a really sad comment that it’s not “if” but “when” for the hiking community…
great video! really brings their personalities to life.
Ian, it sounds like you are trying to make excuses for your guild as well as yourself.
The photographs and stories of yourself, Walter Ritte and the others that stopped the bombing on Kahoolawe represent journalism when it was at its finest.
The photograph of your onion pretty much represents journalism of the present.
Your comparison to oil as a commodity is not even close. News is not oil, nor a commodity. News is information that hopefully the public can benefit from in some way.
Competition certainly did not drive down the price of news…look at Hawaii New Snow…I mean News Now.
And price competition does not take place in a vacuum…it takes place in the context of relative quality…
And news has been devalued because the news papers and the reports are not reporting news.
When Kennedy was having an affair with Marilyn Monroe, he was also dealing with a missile crisis. The news chose to cover the missile crisis and related geopolitics.
When Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky, he too was dealing with an impending crisis. The news chose to cover the girlfriend and ignored the geopolitics, and we all continue to pay.
Or when the bankers and insurance companies were stealing for the last ten years…and the news took their money for adverts we all know who Tiger is sleeping with and the news ignored the economic realities, and we all continue to pay.
The reporters, editors, journalists have devalued their own work and in doing so have devalued their product and devalued their own business.
Decommoditization would only apply if you are referring to removing a commode. In which case you might have nailed it.
When news papers provide value again — when reporters start reporting again, following up and following through, and raising up the next generation, the business of news papers will make money again.
Good Luck!
Thanks, Chuck. I actually tried Print On Demand, but hated the results. They used a digital photocopier instead of offset press. Digital is terrible for photographs and my book had 25 photos, all of which became streaky and blurry with POD. It’s best for books WITHOUT photos.
Whether your photos are black and white or color, always use OFFSET PRESS for clarity. It costs more than digital, which is why POD companies don’t use it. So that’s why I avoid POD.
BTW, I canceled the services of the POD company I had hired, and published a new 2nd edition of my 1st memoir, which looks much better because it was printed on offset press.
Expensive lesson!