How to create an extraordinarily successful future for the news industry

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I recently did the opening keynote on Creating the Future of News at the International News & Media Association World Congress in New York, which brought together over 400 senior news executives from 45 countries.

Below is a video excerpt of the opening minutes of my keynote.

You can see a video of the complete keynote here, and the static presentation slides here (though much of my visual presentation was video).

A post in INMA’s Keynote blog, Creator of “Newspaper Extinction Timeline” lays out industry’s optimistic future, described the messages I brought to the audience.

The entire news media industry was buzzing in August of 2010 after Ross Dawson released his predictions for when newspapers worldwide would cease to exist.
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“This is one of the only predictions that I’ve made,” Dawson said at the INMA World Congress in New York City last month. “As a futurist, I believe predictions are often not worthwile because nobody knows the future. The future is unpredictable. Yet the reason why I did make these predictions was to provoke, to be able to wake people.”

If he provoked people to consider why they disagreed with the timeline, then “I’ve served my purpose.” His intention was never to necessarily be right — although he might be closer than you’d like to think.

“This is about news on paper. I think the dynamics of that are not bright. But the point is about the news overall, the future is extraordinarily bright.”

Dawson will revise his predictions at the five-year mark later this year.

We are working not just on the revised newspaper timeline, but also on developing research, content, analysis, and frameworks on the far more important topic: the future of news. Keep posted for a lot more on how we can create an extraordinarily successful future for the news industry.