So all is not lost for traditional media outlets that would like to re-engage with consumer reporting. But they will need to meld the best aspects of publications like Consumer Reports and the Consumerist. On the collaborative end of the spectrum, they need to harness technology in order engage readers on many different levels, “curate” the burgeoning flow of digital information, and “mine” for data and analytical tools that can improve the quality of information. They also need to look at the Web as a place for action, in addition to communication, and develop products that can be accessed (and interacted with) from a variety of mobile devices. On the competitive end of the spectrum, news outlets need to identify where the wisdom of the masses is inferior to professional expertise – this tends to be in technical fields that affect all demographics, like food and automobile safety, healthcare and medicine, and banking and finance. And they need to focus on regulation over education, and industry-wide reform over customer service.
If professional consumer reporters can do both things—if they can collaborate and compete in all the right places—they should have no trouble re-gaining the trust and respect of their audiences, and maybe even some subscription or ad revenue.
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I operate TrueDelta.com, which provides information on vehicle reliability, fuel economy, pricing, and pros/cons. Much of this information comes from owner surveys. None of it can be found anywhere else.
Yet I've found, to my surprise, that professional consumer reporters are not interested in the information the site provides. It seems they'd rather write what everyone else is writing, usually based on a press release.
Anyone have an explanation?
Posted by Michael Karesh on Fri 19 Dec 2008 at 08:02 PM