Media
New PINA Could Revolutionise Reporting
In his early 1990s book “Global Paradox”, digital age soothsayer John Naisbitt (more lately, of “Megatrends” fame), predicted that service corporations would find it increasingly difficult to survive on their own in the twenty-first century. He went on to say that ultimately only five to six major players per service category would find it possible to thrive in the increasingly competitive global market.
As quality of service in a given sector becomes more or less uniform across the world, it does not matter what brand a customer chooses. This leads enterprises to prop up individual brands by advertising and promotion, thereby adding enormously to costs. The wiser thing to do would be to merge brands and create megabrands. And then capitalise by merging brand loyalties, driving down costs and delivering a better product or service.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
Mergers and acquisitions is the way to go for businesses since the late nineties. We have seen this happen in a variety of service sectors—with financial institutions, airlines and the hospitality industry. The manufacturing industry has also seen some of the largest mega corporations being created, thanks to mergers. Over the last few years, mergers have brought together the bitterest of competitors in the best traditions of the old adage “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”.
Mergers continue to happen at all levels of the corporate sector in different parts of the world and the Pacific is no exception: the merger of the two Pacific news agencies PINA (Pacific Islands News Association) and PIBA (Pacific Islands Broadcasting Association) is yet another instance of two entities joining hands to avoid duplication of services, especially in an environment with stagnant or even shrinking pools of resources.
As mentioned in the press release announcing the merger, the region could not efficiently support two entities engaged in the same occupation. In these circumstances, this merger seems to have been the best option. Savings on operational costs is the biggest benefit of mergers. Both organisations can now complement each other’s strengths and together address the weaknesses. This has the potential to deliver a better product (in this case a news service) more efficiently both in terms of quality and response time.
It could also result in better resource allocation—both technical and financial—at the disposal of the newsgathering and dispatching mechanism: optimal human resource planning and better technology for newsgathering, analysis and dissemination. Without duplicate operations, the considerable savings on operational costs could be invested in technology and training of both existing and new personnel.
The merger press release also talks about appointing key specialised personnel particularly in technical functions. This is the need of the hour. The combined entity will hopefully be able to beam specific content to its end-user members in the media with on-the-spot-pictures, graphics, sound bytes and even perhaps moving pictures (if that’s not asking for too much) in the near future. Theoretically, all this is possible technologically. It just remains to be seen how well and quickly the merged entity will rise to the occasion.
It’s interesting to note that it’s not just corporations and businesses that have been merging these past few years. Since the online revolution began in the late nineties, media streams too have been merging. Convergence in media is now reality. Text, graphics, voice and moving pictures can now be delivered over a single device-your PC connected to the Internet. This technology is the way forward for Pacific communities because of their isolated geography. And convergence is where this merged entity can play a readership role in news dissemination.
PINA—as the merged entity will now be called—and Pacnews, which will be the name of its news service, could revolutionise reporting in the Pacific with planned investments in technology and personnel.
For instance, it could add news analysis, ear-to-the-ground reports, wide-ranging features (business, environment, developmental issues) and picture reporting to its bouquet of daily services. Given the sprawling geography of the region, it is doubtless difficult for the end-user news media to obtain the latest news photographs and local opinions and even sound bytes (for the broadcast media). PINA could do path-breaking work in these areas.
Its feature service could liaise with development agencies around the world—especially from comparable developing countries—to find Pacific—relevant editorial material that could infuse new ideas in the region. Also, as the region’s only news and features service, PINA could add services in other languages that are spoken across the region—French, for instance. Other areas that PINA could work constructively on are offering well-designed hands-on, skill and technology-based training programmes to regional media persons and students, playing a pro-active role in encouraging the people of the region in influencing public policy and making their voices heard across the Pacific and beyond.
Mergers have several benefits. But what about the downside? With no competition, complacence could very easily and quickly set in. Also, the merged entity will have to work harder in maintaining its independence and at making sense of public relations communiqués dispassionately. But given the experienced professionals involved in the merged enterprise, these scenarios could be quite unlikely-hopefully.
