Printed Newspapers Are History
Since 1998, I have held the position that there was no need to read news on newsprint, especially when most of the news sources were publishing the same articles online. I often argued that websites were the preferred choice of news because:-
a) Up-to-date dynamic news feeds keep people informed as fast as the news would be posted online by the publisher,
b) Reading online does not incur additional charges other than the internet connection (which allows the facilitation of thousands of other tasks),
c) It prevents the unnecessary collection of stacks and stacks of paper, which requires human propulsion energy to sort out and transport for recycling purposes,
b) Reading the news online is much, much greener, as web pages are completely paperless…
Although the economics have finally arrived with The New York Times reporting ad revenue decreases as being the worse this year for newsprints, I am dying to ask why it didn’t happen sooner? Were publishers hanging on to dear life trying to milk consumers for all they are worth before digital news became more portable, mobile and widely used? What were advertisers doing wasting a decade of ad dollars on newsprint, chopping 10 years worth of trees for? Why haven’t the media giants stepped up and exercised social responsibility way back then when they could have?
Greedy, so greedy.
That aside, may I just note in the most brief of manner that this is how I foresee the future of newsprint would be. Due to falling ad revenues, publishers will downsize, cut costs, and reduce their output. Primary news delivery will be online-based, and newsprint will be slowly reduced and eventually faded out over the next 10 years. Ad dollars will be moved to online, but I do not see a completely paperless industry, but newsprint will become more exclusive (not unlike magazines), with consumers paying more for the luxury of physical copies. I’m thinking it will go up to $3.00 per newsprint. There will be more quality advertisers from blue chip clients, while rogue advertisers will definitely avoid the high cost of advertising with newsprint by meeting their purpose online.
Media giants must now compete with each other (not that they haven’t already begun), to beef up their online efforts by innovating products and services to serve the changing behaviors of advertisers and readers.
Who?
JACKIE MIAO
Digital Consultant
PRINCE2 Project Manager
Location: London, U.K.-
