Marc Andreessen förklarar på ett mycket kärnfullt sätt i en rad av tweets varför han tror så starkt på det han kallar ”news industry”. Jag tyckte det var så läsvärt, så jag tog mig friheten att dela de här. 

Starting point: I am more optimistic/bullish about future of news industry over next 20 years than almost anyone I know. Will grow 10x-100x.

The news business is a business like any business, and can and should be analyzed and run like a business.

Thinking of news as a business is not only not bad for quality objective journailsm, but is pro quality objective journalism.
A healthy business is the foundation for being able to build high quality products, and to do so sustainably. Including journalism. Analyzed as a business, the news industry is going through a fundamental restructuring and transformation, for worse AND for better.

The main change is that news businesses 1946-2005 were mostly monopolies and oligopolies, and now they’re not. Wrenching change for anyone. Doesn’t mean that great news businesses can’t get built in highly competitive markets, just that they get built differently than before. In particular, monopoly/oligopoly structure of newspapers, magazines, broadcast TV news pre-’05 meant restricted choice, overly high prices. In other words, the key to the old businesses was control of distribution way more than anyone ever wanted to admit. Wonderful while lasts.

Now, with everyone on Internet, three things are happening simultaneously:

(1) Distribution going from locked down to completely open, anyone can create & distribute, no $ premium for control of distribution.
(2) Formerly separate industries colliding on Internet. Newspaper vs magazine vs broadcast TV vs cable TV vs wire service, now all compete.
(3) Market size dramatically expanding–many more people consume news now vs 10-20 yrs ago, many more still in 10-20 yrs. Big, big deal.

1 & 2 drive prices down. 3 drives volume up. Right now everyone obsessed with 1 and 2. Ultimately most important is 3. Market size=destiny. Big opportunity for news industry in next 5-10 yrs is to increase market size 100x, drop prices 10x. Become larger & much more important.

Källa: tweets