Decisions show what business someone is really in, even if they don’t realize it themselves
Yesterday I was talking about how newspapers like the Dallas Morning News aren’t really in the news business.
They’re in the click/engagement business. The news content is just bait to draw you in.
Truth is, papers were never really in the news business. Before the internet, they were in the business of selling obituaries and advertising. That revenue dwarfed what they got from subscriptions or single-copy sales.
Instead of calling it clickbait (since the term hadn’t been invented), you might have called it a loss leader back then.
Although don’t tell that to the journalists who were saving the world.
(Fine job they did too.)
Their main product has always been the audience whose attention they could sell. It’s just become a non-viable business in the internet age.
But what about a successful business like the NFL? What business are they in?
Staging football games, sure. They sell lots of tickets — about $4.1 billion worth in 2024.
But that’s not their main product. Broadcasters pay about $12 billion (three times ticket sales) each year for the right to show the games.
So their real product is the audience. Same as newspapers, just a better model. And rest assured the NFL knows what business it’s in, even if the news business doesn’t.
And you can always tell what business someone is in by the decisions they make.
Papers sacrifice accuracy and clarity in search of clicks.
The NFL changes its on-field product to suit TV — kickoff times, short weeks, odd schedules. That’s not always fair to the players or ticket buyers, but the people at home love it.
In brokerage you see the same thing. Some people say they’re in the “you” business, but their decisions show they’re in the “them” business.
That works short term, but not long term.
The only way to succeed long term in brokerage is to be in the trust business.
(Hello.)
Yeah I talk a big game. How do you know I mean it? Only one way to find out.
Is there ever a bad time to try a better way? (You can always go back to the old way.)
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