Status quo bias & the resistance to New Media

Counterfactuals and the answers right under your nose

Be careful not to join the chorus of cognitive biases. For example, status quo bias:

Publishers need to focus on competitive advantages, not commoditized soft skills

You have to make a number of assumptions to accept your thesis. First, you assume that the current media ecosystem isn’t bloated. News is a crowded, competitive, commoditized product, with low barriers to entry and a lot of entrants. Is a shakeout not warranted? Will a shakeout not reallocate profits and power back toward a more equitable equilibrium — not just among publishers, but also along the entire supply chain?

Second, you assume that a new regime has not and can not supplant the old. When you say “the overall quality of the news, the media and content is going to drop — because the organizations we have relied on to curate, cultivate and develop content won’t exist,” you ignore the evolution and revolution underway in niches like curation and authentication. Further, you discount entrepreneurial ingenuity to address burning needs.