Editor’s note: We spoke with Jim Kennedy, senior vice president of strategy and enterprise development for The Associated Press, about the shift in the types of audiences consuming media. To hear other perspectives from this series, click here.

What has been the generational shift in media audiences and organizations?

Jim: Especially at the beginning, we all thought it was just a technological change that we had to adapt to. But it’s not going to be “the next big thing” that changes things, it’s going to be the entrenchment of the new generation of consumers. So the fundamental issue in the business is that as digital immigrants – people like me who started doing this 20 years ago – we were designing things for digital natives. We didn’t understand that.

Well, now those digital natives are really in charge. They’re working for us, they’re going to replace us in running the businesses and they’re certainly the main consumers of content of all kinds, whether it’s news or whether it’s programming. But we’ve got to prepare for a world that’s dominated by them and not by the baby boomers. And that’s a fundamental shift in mindset and approach in the news business.

Jake Kreinberg

Jake is the text and multimedia product manager at The Associated Press and the former editor of Insights. He previously covered college sports as a reporter for AP and helped design its multi-year strategic plan. Have feedback about the blog? Contact us at insights@ap.org.