Print is living on borrowed time
By Gareth Powell
The BBC reports: ‘I think there is no doubt that growth in electronic media is the future, but there is still a future for print.’ — Larry Killman, World Association of Newspapers.
His view is far more optimistic than mine. Newspapers which are sold for money will not be with us for more than a decade. Yes, there will be newspapers that will still exist but they will be very targetted — The Wall Street Journal, The Finanical Times, the
Australian agricultural newspaper The Land. But the rest are living on borrowed time and most of them now know it.
But Larry Killman of the World Association of Newspapers believes newspapers are ‘far from dead’. He said, ‘People have been predicting their death for years, television was going to kill newspapers, for example. I think there is no doubt that growth in electronic media is the future, but there is still a future for print.’
In truth, I never once saw a forecast that television would kill newspapers. That it would damage the film industry, yes. And it did.
But I cannot recall one commentator say it would kill newspapers. And it did not.
Michael Oreskes, executive editor of the International Herald Tribune, said, ‘For more than 100 years journalism has been sustained by this virtuous circle in which the audience paid for their news, and the advertiser paid to reach that audience, and the publisher made a profit and paid his journalists and the society benefited into the bargain.
‘That whole circle breaks down on the internet. This requires wildly creative thinking on the part of media companies to preserve the base of support that’s created quality journalism for all these years.
‘And that’s a subject that the whole of society needs to be interested in and not just those whose livelihood depends on it.’
The big question facing major papers is how can they compete with free. News used to be a saleable commodity, now they seem to be giving it away.
Papers like Metro in London have borrowed the internet’s business model and make money solely through advertising. Many people will not now pay for a newspaper. Now there are five free newspapers in Sydney alone.
In Paris, Libération is being hammered by the Internet on one side and free papers on the other. It has traditionally shunned advertising it deemed politically compromising and relied on its cover price for its income. It is now in financial crisis: its doors threatening to close for good. The paper partly blames the internet.
The International Herald Tribune now sees itself as a media organisation rather than just a paper; their website features video stories and has taken the step of charging for premium content.
Meredith Artley, director of digital development at the International Herald Tribune, ‘Good journalism costs money and so we are trying to see what we can do to make sure we can continue to grow and support the business. So far it is working. The advertising is growing at a huge rate and we are seeing, especially with mobile devices, that readers will pay for something they know that’s valuable.
‘They’ll do it on the web too, but with mobiles it is a little bit different. People will download things, they will pay for them. So we are exploring that. It is still a little bit of experimentation, but that is what all this is about.’
For journalists these are the best of times, the worst of times. The beginning and the end.
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December 11th, 2006
This may be the case, but I don’t think a computer can replace a paper. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing better than sharing a cup of coffee with my computer wihile reading the morning news; Although, my computer is not always available to me.
I would surely accept free papers with extra advertisements printed on them.
October 11th, 2007
And how many years have we heard this? I file this with voice recognition and paperless office. Until mobile phone get a decent display and WIFI is everywhere, like plane, hospitals etc… there will be print.
May 29th, 2008
Only when color e-paper is available in at least an 8.5 by 11 ich size for under a $100 will publishers of newspapers and magazines not need to print copies. And that won’t happen for several years, if ever. Advertisements are replacing subscription fees but that doesn’t mean that newspapers and magazines will go away, it will make them less independant, which is far more of a threat than automation.