There is no denying that the newspaper industry isn’t what it once was. One of the many statistics Eric Alterman points out in his article link “Out of Print”, is that independent, publicly traded American newspapers have lost 42 percent of their market value in the past three years. You can play with the math all you want, but it’s going to be hard to make that number not sound as bad as it does.
What kind of future President/CEO/CFO/corporate crony would I be if I couldn’t explain the reasoning for those numbers? Ok. Well clearly it doesn’t take a financial wizard to determine the magical answer. The Internet.
We live in an information age where any sort of news or information is just a click away. As someone who has grown up with computers, it’s hard for me to imagine what it was like to only have the newspaper at your disposal. Forget the journalistic side of the decline of the print industry, and think about newspapers as a hub of information.
Before I was born (I’m not trying to make anyone feel old), if you wanted to know the weather forecast, movie showtimes, or browse the classifieds there was only one place to do it. The Internet has “stolen” the exclusivity that newspapers use to have over that information.
All that remains is the news. Papers exist because they hire the best and brightest (lets hope) journalists to find the stories that the public needs to know. This is there content. Whether they are putting it online or into ink, they are offering a service that is superior. But as great as the copy of the New York Times on your front porch is, nytimes.com on your VAIO is just as good, if not better.
This is the problem facing newspapers today, and there’s no easy solution. Do you try to differentiate your hardcopy and online editions enough so that people will use both? Do you try to phase out the paper edition and find ways to make your website more profitable? There are numerous possibilities.
And I don’t claim to know which of the avenues the corporate bigwigs will pursue, but I do know* that newspapers aren’t going to disappear anytime soon (*probably maybe know).
People like things that are tangible. Maybe it’s the sense of accomplishment when you turn the page or possibly the sense of ownership. The newspaper unlike any other medium can be held in your hands, and that quality should not be underestimated.
In my life I think I’ve come up with two great ideas that would be very profitable. One shall remain a secret, stay tuned for my career in sports producing, and the other is a high-tech newspaper. It would be the same size as two pages of your average newspaper, but it would consist of a foldable four-panel screen. It would be as thin as a paper clip and weigh practically nothing. Every morning you would wirelessly sync it up with your paper of choice online, and in a matter of seconds you have your portable paper to carry with you all day! The panels would also be touch screens. You could turn the page, zoom in, or email the columnist all while on the go. Think about what it would do for the environment. The need for paper disappears along with all the expenses involved in printing. That is the future I see. Not as cool as the Matrix, but close.
Are you ready? It’s metaphor time. Think of the newspaper like a living organism. In the end everything dies, but along the way there is evolution (at least in some schools). They both must adapt to survive and will not go down without a fight.
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3 comments:
This is a very intriguing post, and you link to a great article that provides further insight into the topic you have chosen. I especially like the original idea at the end for how to revolutionize the newspaper. What I think you need to do a bit more is to make some element of the political more central to the whole post. So what do these changes in newspapers and the advent of the web mean for political information? What does it mean for how journalists go about their work in reporting on political issues? You definitely have the media part down in this post, now you just need to add in the "and politics."
I thought this post was very interesting. Especially, with the way events unfold so quickly on the internet that it almost feels like the news portion of the newspaper can't keep up with the internet. I think the things that can't be replaced are the editorials and the investigative portions of newspapers though.
I think your idea of the thin electronic newspaper is a great idea! I think the market for it would be huge.
Very intellectually stimulating. It's so refreshing to read interesting articles that contrast with how ignorant some people are.
I noticed you haven't published since april. Big no-no. I want more.
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