IF you were given the opportunity to run a print newspaper, what changes would you make? Say you suddenly become the head honcho of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippine Star or Manila Bulletin, or, um, one of the other papers that I hear are still out there (just kidding, heh), how would you revamp the newspaper?
How would you make the print newspaper more relevant to the needs of readers?
Why am I proposing this thought experiment? Well, mainly because as I’ve said time and again, print is dying. And sure, I’ve been convinced of that for some time, but it’s also good to hear the experts supporting what you believe, heh. So let’s say it again, loud and clear: “Wake up and smell the coffee, Dead Tree People.”
Speakers at the World Association of Newspapers meeting have warned that the newspaper is part of a dying breed and its only hope for survival is to embrace the digital future.
Here’s an excerpt from the Agence France-Press article:
He described the new path of news, starting with an e-mail or mobile phone alert of a breaking story, followed by reading it online and ending in its publishing in a newspaper the following day.
In such a scenario, he said, there was little point in newspapers repeating the news hours after it first broke. They would have to learn to present readers with new, forward-looking story angles.
“Nowadays, you have to assume that the reader knows more than you do,” he said.
Martha Stone, director of the WAN’s “shaping the future of the newspaper” program, told delegates the time has come for news organizations to cross-train journalists to tell a story in print, radio, television or online.
This is the reality newspapers have to face. By the time stories come out in the newspaper the following day, they’re already stale — they’ve already come out online in breaking news articles, on TV, on radio, as an SMS alert, as an e-mail newsletter, as a blog entry, and so on.
Obviously, the strength of print as a medium is not in being the first to come out with the news. It has to add something of value — for instance, offering in-depth analysis and putting the news in context. Which is why I personally believe print newspapers will have to transform themselves and rely on their strengths, such as their opinion columns.
Convergence is a buzzword we’ve been hearing for over a decade, and thankfully it’s something that’s being embraced by the Philippine Daily Inquirer group of publications. Obviously, as part of INQUIRER.net, I’m biased for online content, but that’s because it’s something we’ve been successfully doing for the past seven years as a spin-off company. Our numbers are growing, in stark contrast to the unfortunate decline in the circulation of print newspapers. Which is why, paradoxical as it may sound, the future of print is online, and the owners of these publications are recognizing that they have to invest in the future.
We’ve seen greater collaboration between us and our print counterparts in terms of breaking news stories from print reporters, and online content that gets published in the newspaper. In the old days, it would have been unthinkable for print to release their stories ahead — these would have been reserved for the newspaper the following day. Also, when online newspapers were starting out, they basically contained shovelware — stories that already came out on print. Now, it’s the other way around; we are producing more original content, and these stories are coming out on different platforms.
It’s come to the point where I’m curious how many people read the actual newspaper. Not as a knock against print, but because many of our readers are exclusively online.
So, how would you save the newspapers? Their future is in your hands.
June 6th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
There’s one advantage print newspapers have over their online counterparts–they’re ultimately easier on the eyes and easier to bring than laptops, palm digital assistants and whatnot.
Can you afford to stare at the computer screen all day and not have your eyes checked out for excess radiation? Yes, radiation like the kind available in cell phones and all sorts of electronic gizmos.
But then I guess with the lifestyle nowadays, people are getting used to radiation and having their genes mutated by it. Look at the colorful world of Springfield in The Simpsons, where they consider five fingers in each hand as “freakish.”
Besides, if the news sucked, you can always use it as toilet paper. Can you do that with laptops and personal computers? I thought so.
Though I agree that newspapers need to converge and make changes and all that but print media–which includes newspapers, magazines, newsletters et al–will always find an audience and not even snobbish online elitists can deny that.
June 6th, 2007 at 11:27 am
For one thing, I would archive them for future use, like in instances where school projects require newspaper clippings.
June 6th, 2007 at 12:10 am
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