Jorma Ollila: reliable brands succeed on media market
Nokia and Shell chairman supports public service broadcasting
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Jorma Ollila, chairman of the boards of Nokia and Shell, believes that media companies that are able to combine reliability with a strong brand will be the ones that succeed in the future.
"In a splintered world, someone needs to bring the pieces together", Ollila said at the Media&Message seminar for producers in the audio-visual sector held in Naantali.
Ollila sees the recent sale of The Wall Street Journal to media mogul Rupert Murdoch to be a good example of the importance of a strong brand in the media world.
Ollila expects the proportion of entertainment in the output of media to continue to grow. He has followed with some concern the concentration of the media landscape in the United States, where entertainment has already usurped much space from classic journalism.
"Europe is between five and ten years behind. Is providing background information the future, or will the easy option be chosen - that of much entertainment? It is a great challenge for all media", Ollila observes.
Jorma Ollila is not completely against increased entertainment, but hopes that journalism would remain a critical voice that serves democracy.
"Journalism should stay and develop as a voice of reason, no matter how senseless the world would appear. And journalists are certainly critical. I have experience of that, although I have always been treated relatively well."
Ollila also noted that the blurring of the border between facts and entertainment calls for good media literacy on the part of the public.
"News is at times increasingly a type of entertainment. More is demanded of listeners so that they will recognise when a light item is introduced", Ollila notes.
According to Ollila, the importance of content production will increase as distribution channels increase, and on the other hand, when the distribution becomes cheaper through the development of technology.
"We will see more content produced by the consumers themselves, which will force media houses to change their own activities. In the future, the logic of earning money cannot be based exclusively on advertising revenue.
Ollila predicts that Internet services that people are willing to pay for will undergo surprising growth in value. Ollila also believes that there will be more demand for local news.
"There has to be something that draws people's attention to their own environment. For some they are local sports results, and for others, something else.
In addition to classical journalism Ollila also defends the principle of public service journalism, as represented by the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE.
"In such a small language area it does not seem to be possible to maintain a broad and comprehensive offering of culture and programming without one or two public service channels."
Ollila did not take a stand on how the public service channels should be financed in the future. He feels that it is not good for the revenue models to be completely detached from the customers. He said that it is important to know and understand what services the people want.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 9.8.2007 - TODAY |
 Jorma Ollila: reliable brands succeed on media market |
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