“I can’t see how it’s possible to make the pure advertising model work unless you have enormous scale. Publishers have to find other ways of making money.”

It’s interesting to note that Grimshaw doesn’t seem to have considered a) working towards an enormous scale or b) innovating a new platform; it’s the lack of creativity I find the most frustrating. If the MD hasn’t got the answers he doesn’t deserve to be in his lofty position, it’s time to start firing the old firm and promoting the juniors.

“You’ve got to pay for it” seems to be the only answer big media hitters can come up with, and so far, in the history of all things internet, no one has ever paid for anything. The problem I see with their pricing model is the clear generation gap. They might get some people over the age of 40 to pay for their content – but aren’t these the same people who still buy their newspapers? How do they plan on attracting a younger audience who grew up reading blogs, reddit, and digg?

The quick fix solution of slapping a price tag on their content is like throwing paper on a dying fire, the party will continue for a brief comforting period followed by its swift and inevitable collapse into grey dust. They’ve really got to get creative to keep the party going – install some disco lights, hire a DJ, hand out some goodies and amass a large following and once you’ve got them there, sell things to them.

OK, so it’s not the best analogy, but I’m sure you see my point.

The music industry has been as slow to react to the changing times as the printed media industry has. They expend all of their energy clinging desperately to whatever influence they have left to point at pirates and content thieves and cry unfair, all the while startups like hypem, last fm and spotify take it upon themselves to sort things out. To take an Eddie Izzard analogy, the mainstream media have been demoted from the driving seat to cleaning  the windscreen at the traffic lights dreaming of how it could have been.

The innovation and experimentation has got to start today. Start thinking “how are we going to do this without a paid model?” My answer would be to let your brands become conglomerates of smaller ones – give your staff the room, support and funding to innovate online platforms. If you’re convinced that money from consumers needs to end up in your pocket, know this – people certainly won’t pay for written content. They’re going to want much more than that if they’re ever to part with their hard earned cash, and what do you currently have to offer them? Very little.

Videos are free on YouTube, music is free on spotify, and television is free on hulu, iPlayer and 4OD so why are people going to pay to read your words? They’re not.

Companies that have innovated are the companies that excite young people so it’s innovation you need to be taking part in. Why isn’t big media doing everything they can to fund UK media start ups? I’d be hesitant to say it’s because they don’t want to be dethroned by a company with an average age below that of their children. Spot.us is an idea that should have been developed by big media, as was tumblr, twitter, vimeo, viddler, kaltura, and wikipedia, but alas, big media has been too busy counting its dwindling chips.

They’ve been immersed for so long in the status quo they’ve forgotten what innovation means, how to do it, and why it’s important. If I were aboard the sinking ship I’d forget the wishful thinking that el’capitanos is going save me. Start frantically designing life rafts to float away and prosper.

The initiative is dubbed “Race Online 2012″ and to achieve it’s aims, Martha Lane Fox intends to use her business contacts to create partnerships focused on achieving her goals. So far, BT, Intel, Google, and even the electrical retailer Comet – which plans to trial an in-store scheme to help older customers familiarise themselves with the web – are on board with the scheme.

Essentially, the initiative is looking to lower the cost of broadband to those who can’t afford it and to push broadband services out into rural Britain, a market that has largely been ignored by broadband providers. This isn’t a flash in the pan idea either, Lane Fox is heading up The Office of Digital Inclusion which is a part of the Governments wider Digital Britain plans. These goals are achievable.

“It is an ambitious project, but other countries have done it. And there are some compelling reasons for driving this forward,” she said.

Here’s the part that should be music to the ears of anyone who owns, or plans to own an e-commerce store. Of the £22bn set to be generated by the scheme, £8.85bn will result directly from an increase in online sales. If Martha Lane Fox and her initiative succeed – remember they aim to have this done in just three years – e-commerce sites will have 14 million more people to sell their products to.

That’s good news if you’re already selling your products online, and it’s even better news if you’re planning to. With the public and private money being spent to get more people buying your products online, there surely hasn’t been a better time to get your business online?

Are people no longer seeing shopping as a viable pastime? If people intend to spend their money they want to spend wisely on things they’ve carefully thought about. While the high street retail world is struggling, online sales continue to grow despite the tough times. It’s not a perfect world – there is some evidence that the growth is starting to slow with online sales growing 12.3% this year – half of last years growth. Mike Petevinos head of consulting for retail Capgemini said “While online is clearly showing signs of being affected by the recession, it is still faring better than the high street as consumers look to online to help them make better informed decisions during tough times.”

This is a key point that continues to rear its head. Consumers are looking to make better informed decisions. Sites like moneysavingexpert have grown substantially since the recession began to take hold – people are clearly looking to spend their money wisely. Something that can and must be taken into account in your e-commerce store.

Evidence suggests that online ‘window shopping’ is on the increase; more customers are browsing but conversion rates have fallen to just 5%, compared with between 6% and 8% in the past two years. It’s a signal that online retailers need to work hard on new ideas to close online sales; customers are around but they’re reluctant to get their wallet out. There are certainly challenges to fight through, but with a big dose of creativity there’s nothing a business can’t survive. Knowing what customers are looking for and then reflecting that in the user interface of your site is a crucial step. It’s relatively simple if you’re running a  virtual store, it’s easy to adapt to changing conditions. How can you turn the fact that people want informed decisions into more sales for your online shop? Integrating new functionality and content to make your products more attractive is a simple affair if you’re using Magento or a custom own e-commerce platform. Generate some functionality and feature ideas on how to make your products appear more buyable to weary consumers and then promote these new features prominently on your site. Of course if ideas aren’t your thing, they’re definitely ours – we’ve got more ideas than we know what to do with.

If customers want to know more about the products you are selling, work hard on your blog. Aggregate news about your product, give honest and impartial advice about what you’re selling, the prices available elsewhere, and how best to use your product. Connect with other people in your niche, review other products, review other retailers, review everything and be prolific. Your readers will trust your honesty and come to respect your niche expertise. Gaining the trust of your customers is crucial and a blog with plenty of great content is a fantastic way to do this. If you’re new to blogging and need some tips on how to gain traffic and an audience, contact us.

Finally, if people are shopping less for leisure and are looking to make informed purchases on specific items, it’s vital that your site is ranking highly for that term in Google – so get working hard on your SEO or hire someone (us) to do it.

Times are difficult but online retail is still doing well – well enough to convince some analysts that it could be the saviour of the UK economy. If you’re not already involved, get your online presence developed.