There are two things that are almost guaranteed to bring out the giant ***** in me. One is people who accost me in the street trying to convert me to one religion or another (it’s amazing none of them have punched me for suggesting they’re mentally ill). The other thing is sales calls.
I think this allows me to be nice to almost everyone else, even when they’re being annoying.
Anyway, this morning I got a call from the Ottawa Sun, asking if I wanted a trial of the newspaper for as little as $0.20 a day. I said,
My boyfriend and I are 24 and 28. I don’t think either of us has ever bought a newspaper, apart from The Economist. We get all of our news online. So I don’t think we’re really your target market
This guy he took it really well, laughed and complimented me, and told me his kids were the same way.
I was talking to Treena the other day about her start-up, Betidings. She observed that the people who had really “got it” were my generation.
Now, it seems obvious. People used to hear about events in the paper (perhaps some people still do). However, I don’t know anyone who reads a paper – I’m the exception, and I only read the Economist! We get our news from various sources online, and hear about events from our friends or via Facebook or Twitter. But you can’t export Facebook events to your calendar and Facebook doesn’t really display them that helpfully either. The thing about Twitter is that in order to hear about events someone is going to you have to be tuning in to everything they’re saying, and even then you may only hear about it on the day (when it’s too late to get tickets). Betidings means you can just tune into their calendar. That’s kinda awesome.
I think newspapers will die, but I also think that presents an opportunity to those willing to look for them. Betidings is one such example. Do you have another?
Check out what events I’m going to through my Betidings calendar.