What "unbundling" means for news organizations

The New York Times story about Facebook News Feed that I wrote my previous blog post on also mentions the term "unbundling," which we have talked about in class this semester. It's a term used to describe changes occurring in the way a number of professions and industries serve their clients and customers.

As one non-communications example, some attorneys are — within the parameters of their codes of professional conduct — unbundling services in an effort to save clients money (and keep them from using products like LegalZoom). They may represent clients only through specific steps in a court proceeding, for example, or break up what once had been a package of services into smaller, less expensive alternatives.

The Times article cites the changes in the music industry that have occurred over time as comparable to the journalism profession. No longer do consumers have to buy an album or CD to get the one or two songs they like; now they can purchase individual songs online. Likewise, readers and viewers increasingly have less "brand loyalty," opting to go to single stories of interest that they find through their social media feeds or search engines rather than to a specific news source like the Times or NBC News.

As mentioned in the previous post, this puts pressure on both the editorial and business sides of news organizations to rethink how they present their content. The Times story also mentions a move by The Washington Post to look at ways it can deliver "different versions of [its] journalism to different people, based on information about how they have come to an article, which device they are on and even, if it is a phone, which way they are holding it."

The Post's digital editor says more than half of its mobile readers are millennials who get their news online and primarily through social media sites. “We’re asking if there’s a different kind of storytelling, not just an ideal presentation,” the editor said. People reading the paper on a mobile phone during the day may prefer a different kind of "reading experience" than those who are on a laptop at home in the evening, she said, adding that such a change is “ultimately about sustaining our business or growing our audience.” 

Kudos to big organizations like The Post for looking for every advantage in today's news market, but most smaller news operations don't have those kinds of resources. They must look for other opportunities to reach readers and viewers, such as by offering content — such as local news specific to their communities — that no one else has. That will be difficult in today's age of reduced newsroom staff and smaller news holes.