To the point: more courage
Like any journalist, I regularly exchange ideas with many different people. Once in a personal conversation or on the phone, but then also via e-mail, Facebook and Twitter.
As different as the communication channels are, so different are the interlocutors. They can be veteran journalists, editors-in-chief, creative directors, agency owners and CEOs, publishing managers, PR or communications directors, but also young creatives, young journalists, online nerds or Internet entrepreneurs.
The topics are logically always similar: function of the media, quality of the media, development of the advertising market, online media, future of communication, etc. Lately, it has also always been rather explosive topics from politics, business and society. That probably says a lot, too.
What always strikes me is that the age of the people rarely correlates with the different answers. I know, my dear know-it-alls, that this has long been known from psychography and countless target group typologies. But there is a huge difference between seeing colored diagrams or data clouds on a PowerPoint chart and hearing the whole thing one-to-one and perhaps also noticing non-verbally what makes the other person tick.
If you want to divide the answers, attitudes and opinions quite simply into two groups, then there are the preservationists who want to shield, defend and guard everything. Every idea, every new approach is nipped in the bud. They don't see any opportunities, but concentrate on possible risks. They don't look beyond the end of their nose, because it's all about their own industry. We dream of glorious past times and secretly hope that they will return.
The second group are the curious. These question the tried and true, they seek new paths (knowing that one may fail), they see new opportunities - albeit often overly optimistic ones - and they are curious. They are interested in other industries, new ways of thinking. They try to imagine new markets and new consumer and reader needs.
What I've noticed lately is that the group of preservationists and doubters is growing more and more. The curious are viewed with suspicion and secretly catalogued as potential troublemakers and dangerous fantasists.
A little more courage, dear media and communications industry! Hesitation and procrastination will get you nowhere.
Pierre C. Meier, Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
