Nobody Cares About Newspapers
When I asked my Twitter contacts recently how they felt about the inexorable decline of the newspaper industry, hardly any of ‘em seemed to care about the “Death of Newspapers.”
You can argue that the people who frequent the Twitterstream are bleeding edge, biased-toward-digital types of people. But you’d be missing the point of this post:
For as much as people seem to wave-off the death of the newspaper, the majority of respondents to my anecdotal survey were very anxious about the fate of Journalism.
Everyone sees a need for unbiased, investigative journalism. They just don’t care about the format. And regardless of the format, they don’t seem to want to pay for it.
Brighter minds than mine are wrestling with this challenge.
My concluding thought for the day, as I proceed to my sunny deck to eat lunch with the NY TIMES folded under my arm, is that I certainly hope they figure it out.
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I’m extremely interested in seeing how journalism survives as a medium. I’m hoping that it does maintain that edge that comes with unbiased and objective reporting.
I think newspapers are failing more because of union constraints then lack of quality journalism. I hope these journalists will find a home in a new environment (and be fairly compensated for it).
In Seattle, we’re painfully aware of the death of newspapers. In the months leading up to the PI’s demise (well, in its print format anyway), I worried about the fate of journalism in our city. But the reality is that great journalism is alive and thriving. Many of the former Seattle PI reporters have launched news outlets. Hyperlocal blogs are thriving. And the new PI.com has smart reporters who are fighting with everything they have to give that news site a future.
Some of those “brighter minds” you refer to are the people behind “No News is Bad News.” This group is actively pushing Seattle to discuss what happens in a “post-newspaper” world. If you’re interested, you can check out what they are up to at @nnbn.
I just realized I hadn’t commented here much since you and the SHIFT gang hired me last year.
I share the anxiousness about the future of journalism as content over the delivery method.
(aside: I don’t think print will go completely away anytime soon, and I don’t say that only because our client, The Christian Science Monitor, is unveiling a new weekly print edition while focusing daily and breaking news online).
The challenge is, what will people pay for to sustain journalists? Will it be “premium” news? Will journalism realign into competing content aggregators (don;t say “portals”) sustained by advertising? Does journalism enter a public trust (a very touch y topic)?
The next few years are going to be fascinating. I am, however, laying money on the Sunday paper sticking around.
Well, i’m a 30 year old chilean journalist trying to figure out how to get a regular job with this stupid crisis going on… and you talk about the death of the newspapers? I mean… IT’S TERRIBLE!!!! Of course people don’t want to pay for news, they want everything much more specialized and most of them have become news writers themselves, all thanks to the web 2.0 So what happens to serious professional journalism?? Nobody even believes in it anymore, because they know that because of the global media network, it’s all about the same crap: keeping the monetary system on track for al long as they can, because that’s exactly what traditional media are made for, a support channel to the economic system. So, keep on blogging, Internet is free… (sort of, not in Chine, he).
I believe the Nelson from the Simpsons said it best “Haha your medium is dying” So True So True
I will assume that the typical twitterer who responded to your query about the future of journalism was thinking the like of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and other large newspapers, but not local papers and smaller presses. I’m sure even less were considering magazines and books.
While the newspaper industry is surely changing, my take is it’s less to do with consumer demand and more to do with decreased printed advertising causing a shift to incorporate PPC and PPV ads either on a news website or within the RSS feed.
But the local papers aren’t changing much. In fact, I can think of some locals that don’t even have a website yet the printed subscription rates are rising.
People will pay for news, just like bookstores aren’t closing because people will pay for books and magazines.
The internet has disintermediated http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermediation 100’s of industries or functions. Google and RSS feeds disintermediated the delivery of news function of the newspapers.
The Kindle threatens to disintermediate the portable pleasure portion @tdefren refers to of ‘taking his New York Times out to his deck’. All that will be left is the nostalgic tactile feel of turning newspaper pages.
@chrisbrogan highlighted the future of journalism. The remaining asset the newspapers own is the independent source of trusted journalism. I believe that to survive, they must reinvent themselves and nurture ‘authority’ and ‘trust’ and learn to deliver it in a Kindle/iPhone world.
The issue of what readers will pay for is much less of a concern than what advertisers will pay for. Subscriptions are not the primary source of revenue for most publications, it’s advertising. And online, advertising is worth roughly 1/10th of what it’s worth in print. Another way to look at that is that your time, your interest, your engagement spent online is valued only 10% of what it’s worth compared to reading a newspaper or watching TV. So the revenue lost due to a decline in print advertising is not being replaced online.
Many people fail to really think about what a world without newspapers would look like. Those same people don’t really understand how valuable “real” journalism is – especially at the local government level.
Most national news, etc. will still get covered thouroghly and newspaper Web sites will provide many journalists a medium to practice their craft. But I think we will see a major decline in stories/articles/reports on what is taking place at the local/ground-level of local politics and legislation.
Suburban journals are dying even faster than major publications. Much of what they cover strictly pertains to local and segmented news. These publications offer PR pros valuable mediums to reach specific audiences. Most suburban journals don’t and may never have Web sites to counter this concern.
We must remember that the concequences of the digital transition may be greater than we expect. There used to be a specific section for op-eds and commentary. Now, most news is being delivered in an op-ed fashion. Personally, I don’t desire to know everyone’s opinion on every topic – just give me the facts, etc.
Still, I am an active member of the online community and enjoy the timeliness and instant gratification of online news, etc.
Just some thoughts.
-JGrass
What I find interesting is that newspaper readership may be declining but so many clients still care about placement in publications to measure success. More people are still more likely to brag about a mention in the New York Times than a mention on a blog. Placement is still king. At least when it comes to senior management, newspapers still matter.