‘War Made New’ and the struggle media companies to survive
In ‘War Made New,’ noted defense historian Max Boot runs through 500 years of battle to show that victory goes to the combatant who had digested and incorporated not just the latest weapon technology, but also the culture and bureaucracy most adept at exploiting this technology.
In other words, it’s not just the latest, greatest military tool that wins battles and wars.
These upheavals on the battlefield show how revolutions in military affairs quickly upend empires, assumptions and future warfare.
It is not hard while reading Boot’s authoritative descriptions of battles in Italy, Koniggatz and Tsushima for me to link the breakthrough tactics and organizations of those winners with the current array of challengers the modern media company faces daily.
The French canons of 1494 and the Prussian needle guns of 1866 were just as revolutionary as the rise of cable and the utility of the internet.
While media companies assail the post-modern methods of web journalism; outdated management techniques and labor fight the radical methods information gathering (When “good enough” journalism is better) while being slow to the punch to counter the hype and monetize the promise of online advertising.
The outcome of media’s struggle to survive depends less on the interest of the public in news, but more on the ability of media companies to deploy organization, staff, technology and tactics to innovate on the sales and content battlefields.
Media pundits sound like an outdated army, scoffing at the enemy’s unwillingness to line up and fight like men when complaints of “inaccuracy” (TMZ leads with early details, while Los Angeles Times and AP do the heavy lifting) and “you’re stealing” (Tighter copyright law could save newspapers: Connie Schultz) are lodged against the likes of TMZ, Newser and Wikipedia.
It’s high time for media companies to learn faster from the likes of Boot, who show how old methods and organization stand little chance and how difficult it is for incumbent s to realize continuous hegemony.
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