In defense of newspapers
A fascinating article in the German website Sign and Sight addresses the future of newspapers. Mathias Dopfner, who heads the Axel Springer publishing powerhouse, says that newspapers exercise an important function in peoples' lives, and while their format may change from paper to electronic paper, their purpose of conveying news will ensure that they will continue to find readers. And the dreaded Internet? "The Internet is not the new newspaper," Dopfner says. "It is a genuinely new medium. Not just a new transfer medium, but a new creative medium, too. According to (early 20th-century Nurnberger Zeitung editor-in-chief Wolfgang) Riepl this means that the Internet will establish itself alongside the media already on offer, not replace them."
Yes, this speech was delivered by someone whose business hinges upon producing newspapers. That said, he makes some compelling points.
posted by RB Tenorio @ 7:32 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Murdoch's NY POST is the model for the newspaper of the future. The print edition fits in with the internet society, and provides an effective competitor to online news sources, because of various characteristics of the NY POST print edition:
Compact, easy-to-read tabloid style -- so as to be readable when there is no internet access, such as on subways.
Simple news summary, providing an overview -- those wanting more depth on any one story can search it out online. (But no need to waste too much space on depth coverage of any one news story.)
Agenda-driven, so that it makes for an interesting read, to see how the agenda justifies the news/actions of the administration, each day -- so even if it is not profitable (as advertisers turn to online media), it still serves the publisher's ideological and political purposes. (The publisher of course is wealthy enough not to need a profit from this paper.)
Heavy focus on entertainment -- both generating it (puns on back and front pages) and covering it (Page6 gossip) ... because entertainment isnt as time-intensive...i.e., whereas you want to know about Iraq's latest happenings ASAP (3:05PM, if that's when the events occurred), you can wait until tomorrow for the photo of Britany walking her dog (and/or Federline) on the beach.
Heavy focus on local sports -- which isnt covered as much on major sports websites (which tend to be national, such as espn.com, etc.)
Cheap (25 cents in NYC) -- because people can get the news for free online, so a newspaper shdnt be expensive.
No other paper has a PRINT EDITION that competes with online news sources as effectively as the NY POST print edition does. (Obviously, other newspapers may -- and, in fact do -- have better online editions than NY POST, but that is irrelevant to the point of Rich's post.)
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