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Who the Internet has hurt and helped
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TEXT OF INTERVIEW
JEREMY HOBSON: Seems like just about everyday there's another story about how the Internet has reshaped this business or that business, how some iPhone app has put some poor mom-and-pop out of their jobs. Well, we wanted to dig into that a little deeper with Porter Bibb. He spent much of his career in old media at the New York Times and Newsweek. And he now runs a consulting firm here in New York called Mediatech Capital Partners.
Porter Bibb, welcome to the show.
PORTER BIBB: It's great to be here.
HOBSON: The Internet, it's ruining old media -- like newspapers and magazines -- it's apparently making office space less important, head hunters are out of a job. Are there any other things I've left off the list?
BIBB: You might include land-line telephones, which have virtually disappeared from the face of the earth. There also is a very negative impact that the Internet has created on, of all things, flea markets. eBay, on which you can sell anything globally, has replaced antique stores and flea markets around the world. The other big loser probably in the Internet is the U.S. Postal Service. Regular mail has dropped precipitously over the last decade in the face of an onslaught of e-mail.
HOBSON: So does this mean that the Internet is bad for the economy?
BIBB: Essentially, as a technological innovation, on many levels it is the best thing to ever happen to the global economy. It's created an information explosion. It's helped productivity around the world. It's connected the global economy.
HOBSON: Do you think there are industries that don't know yet what's coming to them, that haven't been affected by the rise of the Internet, but soon will be?
BIBB: Virtually anybody today in business knows that the Internet is going to change the way he does business. And I think that it's really a question of whether they have figured out how to transition to the Internet and to digital or not. I'd like to add one other thing that is actually a huge beneficiary of the Internet revolution. And that is radio, and particularly public radio and programs like Marketplace. Because the podcast on the Internet allows anybody, anywhere, anytime to hear this program.
HOBSON: And we paid Porter to say that. By the way, our Marketplace podcast is available right here. Porter Bibb, thanks so much for coming in.
BIBB: It's always a pleasure.
HOBSON: Porter Bibb is managing director of Mediatech Capital Partners in New York.
I second the motion that death of landlines is highly exaggerated. According to that anti-progress house organ, the New York Times technology section, the hi-tech machines in their offices with the most fidelity are landlines. Gee, doesn't that mean that these geeks have this contraband on their desks?! A more accurate way of phrasing the situation would be to say that landline growth is flat.
Like many "consultants" in the new media/internet arena, this guy is hyping what he hopes will happen! Hey buddy, did you know half the broadband users in the USA are connected over those landlines you say have "have virtually disappeared from the face of the earth?" A lot of the drop in mail is junk mail which is dying of delivery cost increases as well as online shopping. And flea markets and garage sales look like they're doing pretty well, especially among the foreclosed and repossessed - a much bigger problem, I might add.
It's people like him that are convincing the wireless companies that they should abandon voice for data and compete with cable for TV - abandoning those of us who still use phones as phones. And I can vouch for the fact that voice service is dismal everywhere - having left CA for 2000 miles driving in the Midwest, NE and South recently.
Why do people scream into their cell phones? Because, like me, they are frustrated with the lousy service.
PS: NPR and Marketplace work very well on car radios too - better coverage than the $%^&*() cellular phone voice service!
I was a bit surprised to hear in this story that there was no mention of the impact that the internet has had on retail sales and profits. As a 30 year retail veteran, I've seen profits slim down and mid level distribution jobs vanish as more manufacturers and wholesalers sell direct to consumers at low prices to be competitive. It's far less expensive to sell online vs. through a brick and mortar or catalog channel, and the proliferation of new, pure online retailers selling products at 30 points less margin than the keystone standard (and offering free shipping and no sales tax to boot)is creating a flattened, off-price buying landscape that's eroding retail profits along with the jobs that they supported. As a consumer I can't complain. I too have succumbed to the 'Google Shopping' method of finding the best deals, but as a retailer and concerned citizen I worry about the impact this is having on the economy.
In Reidsville NC a small family owned office supply company has adapted to the internet by moving it's focus from sales to both private individuals with small purchases and larger purchases from industrial clients to a national sales company catering to private and public clients through through expansion of it's office supply database and improvement of it's online ordering processes...so in their case the internet has decreased one area of sales while greatly increasing other areas....the net impact has been positive....
