Without fanfare the Federal Government allocated nearly $16m to the national broadcaster to establish a string of 50 community portals around the country in the ‘09 budget.
Amongst a stimulus package of billions it was an item missed by most pundits, however it did not go unnoticed by the mass media who immediately launched an all-out war to have the ambitious scheme killed off before it has a chance to threaten their perceived hold on regional and rural online audiences.
The Australian led the charge, claiming taxpayers’ dollars should not be wasted on services already provided by existing private enterprise television and newspaper websites.
It is presumed the journalist was not aware the planned community portals were probably (full details have not been provided) completely different from the ‘network’ of websites established by traditional media outlets in the past two years promoting their existing offline programs and seeking offline advertisers.
The self-serving editorials also deftly avoided a major flaw in their argument: being the planned operator – ABC Local Radio – is already one of, if not the main, providers of local news throughout Australia, and has been for decades.
But just providing more videos and hosting consumer generated videos and blogs is only a small component of the suite of tools and services a fully fleshed out community portal is capable of, and should, provide - if it is to succeed and ultimately become sustainable.
What’s more, this only limited improvement approach in existing news services was the prime reason the BBC Trust threw out a proposal in the UK when their traditional media attacked the BBC’s plans to rollout a similar network there.
Of course, this also underlines the risk of allowing existing media (public or private) to control the emergence of a completely different form of media that threatens the continued profitability/viability/audiences of their existing media properties.
World-wide it is obvious traditional media has completely missed the ‘internet’ boat with all leading global websites being developed by pure online players, eg:
• GOOGLE – the leading global provider of search tools
– see www.google.com
• eBay – the leading global online auction
– see www.ebay.com
• Amazon – the leader in global book sales
– see www.amazon.com
In addition, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the latest Web 2.0 social networks were all, without exception, conceived and launched by pure online players.
In addition, it should not go unnoticed that in Australia there has not been a single instance where an internet category has not been established and dominated by a pure online player, eg:
• SEEK the leading employment website
– see www.seek.com.au
• WOTIF the leading accommodation website
– see www.wotif.com
• REALESTATE.COM the leading real estate website
– see www.realestate.com.au
• CARSALES the leading motor vehicle sales website
– see www.carsales.com.au
At the risk of labouring the point, it seems obvious that existing media are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to trying to single-handedly establish untested online formats, not only in this country but anywhere.
This point, of course, applies to the ABC as well as the commercial media, however it is hoped that the government will insist the public broadcaster forms some type of allegiance to an existing pure online community portal operator/s before it enters these mostly uncharted waters.
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