The Cost of Ignoring the New Digital Distribution Systems

Posted on December 9, 2008 by David Gray

UMassOnline CEO David Gray An article that references a recent IBM study, all about changes in the media being driven by digital technology, offers some stats you may want to quote next time someone asks you why you learn or teach online. While the article and the IBM study are not about online learning, per se, you come away from both more certain than ever over the inevitability of online education.

Changes in media content, distribution, rights, authorship, and cost are the focus of both the study and the brief article. But the disruption happening in this regard, in the media industry, is happening across the board. A failure to seize the changes, adopt to the new technology can be economically devastating to established institutions, advises IBM. A very contemporary example of this is the deep financial distress in which the Tribune Co., parent of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, finds itself. A December 8th report in the New York Times states, “Like most newspapers, Tribune’s have suffered double-digit percentage declines in advertising this year, as ads and readers continue to shift to the Internet…” Indeed, the venerable New York Times itself is reportedly in danger of insolvency, according to a current CNNMoney.com report.

Is there a parallel to be drawn between the woes of the newspaper industry and traditional higher education? Does all this mean that within ten years there won’t be a viable university that doesn’t offer at least some online options? Is the ongoing transformation of media and communications so powerful a force that all contemporary social institutions need to change radically or perish?

For anyone interested in, or living, the digital distribution revolution, I highly recommend the IBM study for its insight into changing media models which may have broad application to other sectors, like higher education.