newspapers to the digital challenge Goodbye to paper?
While some envision a purely digital future, the major names in the newspaper industry are betting on a complex scenario that achieves synthesize the wealth of the different format.
Libedinsky
Por Juana (Daily Nation )
LONDON .- The news that five years would be impossible to buy The New York Times and sit down and read it with the typical coffee purchased in the shopping street gave around the world in a few minutes and revived the debate between the end of the paper soothsayers and the triumphant arrival of the screen.
Arthur Sulzberger, owner, president and editor of the international world's most influential Western Cathedral print journalism, slipped it without too much drama to reflect on the advancement of the Internet: "The daily paper could simply no longer exist," he said.
Beyond that Sulzberger's words did not keep an actual announcement, the discussion on how the development of online communication is affecting photojournalism is far from cool and just as the director of the New York Times predicted five years, other voices different risk predictions. But the truth is that among the experts consulted by THE NATION , there is agreement that in a decade, the paper version of the newspapers play a lesser role in the journalistic structure of the press.
"The nature of the challenge posed by digital media," says Bruno Patino, director of Le Monde Interactif and author of "A world without Gutenberg - today is a complicated circle in which we combine flight advertising, the cost of paper and of course, the habits of the younger generation closer to the screens. The latter is not new, had already been saying since the 50's with television and radio, but with the difference that the Internet is participatory and it actively did bring a revolutionary change. Besides advertising graph, to a lectureship aging and reduced in number, inevitably falls.
And, of course, if it is advertising, the role becomes more expensive and less people can afford to buy the newspaper. The numbers so far show a complex picture that may reflect an inexorable decline of printed newspapers (global trend in which Argentina is included) and sometimes, as in the recent report of the WAN (World Association of Newspapers, as its acronym English) are some pickup: at the global level, the spread increased by 9.95% between 2000 and 2005, but we must take into account that in this period, the movement of Free dailies doubled.
Only in the last year growth was 2.36% newspapers. In Argentina, over the past ten years which coincide with the emergence of Internet-the trend was declining: according to the IVC circulation Clarin fell nearly 30 percent of readers and that of the nation, 7 percent (of course, in the specific case of our country, it is difficult to distinguish the causes given the devastating effect of the crisis of 2001). "In the U.S. newspapers are desperately trying to see how they can make money on line (now that they have lost much of its classified ads that were specialized web sites) while their newspapers lost circulation every three months, "he told La Nacion, Todd Gitlin, an influential American intellectual, professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University.
Philip Meyer, journalism teacher and author of The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age, insists that we must be cautious: "The figures show that the movement WAN pay has fallen everywhere except in the developing world, namely Asia, South America and Africa. The newspapers are the natural products resulting from industrialization, because we need the media to sell mass production. The development, however, eventually promote electronic means over the printed everywhere, unless publishers can find a new business model. "
Meyer is among those who believe that newspapers as we know them today have their days numbered, says that if take the current trend of declining newspaper readers, we put in a chart and draw a straight line, this line would touch the zero (ie, no reader) for 2043 and a newspaper goes out of print long before that. Even Complex transitions well, the truth is that, in the state of current debate, but nobody imagines complex transitions abrupt cuts. It is clear that the changes have been extremely rapid, a scenario less than ten years ago was inimaginable hoy es pura actualidad.
Entre los especialistas consultados por LA NACION hay bastante coincidencia en que en la próxima década seguirá existiendo el diario en papel, aunque en una versión de menor circulación, más cara y personalizada, frente a un potentísimo sitio web. Y las empresas editoras de diarios serán aquellas que pasen a ser gestoras de contenidos y creadoras de opinión pública en los formatos más diversos. Pero el camino, al parecer, no será sencillo para la industria periodística. Ya otra de las figuras más poderosas de los medios, el australiano Rupert Murdoch, dueño, entre otros medios, del diario británico The Times , había dicho que had better to organizations like yours become destinations where bloggers and podcasters gathered in more open discussions. "Young people, he said they do not want to rely on a God-like figure in the sky telling them what is important, and certainly do not want news to be presented as gospel."
If you are not technophiles than twenty years to make such comments, but the priests of industry, billionaires corporate suit (and even in cases like septuagenarian Murdoch!), Is it that we have passed the point inflection? Meyer, who is also professor of journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, thinks so and states that it is in Europe are developing interesting experiments and not in the U.S. where publishers, he says, are less adventurous. "But for newspapers to survive, he argues, there must be a much greater risk taking." A successful case is Le Monde Interactif. "The daily paper Le Monde is in a fragile economic situation, but maintains its newspaper reference," says Patil. The online version became a reference web site, by contrast, is gaining a lot of money so much so that, in the 2007 budget, enough to cover the losses of the daily paper. " Patino, who teaches digital journalism at the Foundation for a New Iberoamerican Journalism , summarizes the relationship between newspapers and their online editions as the growth of a child. "The first phase was one of indifference toward the digital medium. The attitude of the print media was a baby, let it grow and see later. Then it was his childhood, in which it was growing in the image and likeness of the father , the diary. now digital media are in their teens to their relationship with the forms. The print media will realize they are, and will increasingly, very different from them, and also beginning to gain independence economic which eventually will hold. " For
editor of the online version of The Times, Anne Spackman, the goal is to make the web site combines speed and accessibility with quality. So we very young boys, who grew up with the visual culture of the web for breaking news with an ultra-fast platform. At the same time are the backbone of our seasoned reporters and columnists, the stars of print journalism, providing analysis and content. But this does not imply that the versions of the daily paper will disappear. Possibly change the proportion of readers of either format, and the daily paper becomes more specialized, expensive and for a more sophisticated market and reduced, but net profits are not the only that encourages entrepreneurs to invest in them, "he says.
The image you are looking for is that of a football club: people who buy them and manages them for reasons not purely commercial, but combines prestige and influence. In fact, according to the Financial Times Friday last, successful entrepreneurs like David Geffen and Jack Welch, with powerful behind investment funds, have already declared their interest in buying newspapers. "Information is moving toward two extremes: free, first , and more expensive, on the other, "summarizes Seamus McCauley, Associated Northcliffe strategic analyst and author of the blog Digital Virtual Economics.
On one side are the daily distribution Free Internet and some tabloids that lower their prices to a minimum almost nonexistent to compete in certain markets, and the other quality newspapers are priced inelastic. "Among the free options should also mention information sites as OhmyNews, a pioneer from South Korean citizen participatory journalism model that is being played all over the world. Their founding base is that every citizen can be a reporter and in OhmyNews, the notes from volunteers are then edited and checked by a permanent staff.
But in both its online and on paper, says McCauley, the weight of a mark will remain fundamental. Which traditionally have built a solid reputation for telling the truth in the paper media will find themselves increasingly in the fortunate position of being who can resolve, on any platform, a very alarming new problem: whom to trust about the proliferation of sources of information.
According to Meyer, the most successful daily paper will be those that differ with notes of opinion and analysis, and chronic or personal views and research written with a pen of quality, ie moving in a more similar to that currently left for the Sunday editions.
"It is what it seems logical to me. However, we will have to experiment a lot to see what works. The newspapers, at least in my country have been too cautious and fearful of failure and this has limited their ability to learn new things to incorporate in the daily paper. "But it's not all that much easier to be on line, but there are certain aspects in which the print newspaper still has an advantage: "Unlike paper reader, which normally buys a single newspaper, the Internet reader is unfaithful by nature," says Vanessa Jiménez, editor of ELPAIS.com . "typically read more than half on line, and many other sites. The emotional relationship is thus much more complicated. Poetics accompanying the reading of "your paper" paper, sitting in a park, the sun, reading the newspaper, or just wear it under your arm on the bus is diluted on the internet. "There are different strategies that are being tested to achieve . Something that pioneered Digital Freedom was to provide a space for readers to create their own blogs, says Juan Antonio Chinchetru columnist Internet issues Digital Freedom -.
This allows them to express themselves and makes them feel part of the publication, as they provide content. Columnists important article format have left to spend to have a blog here, which his supporters (or detractors) can participate in an ongoing debate. In short, the best way to respond to the special relationship that readers develop a daily online paper is to give them ways to express themselves, to feel part of a community, "he says.
What not to do?" Attempts to stop the bleeding of readers of the daily paper by the end of online content (ie let these only see a fee) has been a failure. On the Internet, the biggest competitor to a newspaper on paper is not their own electronic publishing is all news sites, "he says.
To John Naughton, this would be an example of the complex symbiosis that exists between a written medium and online version line that presents a parallel to what happens in nature. "What has happened is that a new body has arrived in the media ecosystem and existing agencies have to adjust to the newcomer, and vice versa too. Relations complex, interesting and essentially symbiotic are emerging from new media like blogs and print journalism more Traditional.
My guess is it will be beneficial for both, "he says. "The question is then whether the publishers of newspapers know migrating to a new social role," concludes Txema Alegre, editor of the online edition of La Vanguardia, Barcelona, \u200b\u200bstop being newspaper editors to be managers content and public opinion makers in various formats: paper, digital, mobile, audiovisual, or whatever. All formats are supported and are in competition. So, in short, if it survives the daily paper or not, that will tell readers to choose. "The Great Transformation But specifically, what will become a large national newspaper in the coming years?"
Le Monde, for example, exist in printed format, with a lower circulation for elite public, semi-custom versions that differ from the current mass production and, of course, with a different distribution system of existing outlets, "replies Patiño. not exactly a day tailored to each reader but as cars that may come today with a wheel upholstered in particular or different, will be more designed for those who use it individually. Moreover
website is much more powerful than the newspaper. If today the site already has four times more readers than the paper, have at least ten times and have all kinds of videos and highly sophisticated interactive connections . All this will give a great ability to make money through advertising.
"As journalists, reflects Patiño - there are very few who can be as good in paper format digital. Those who succeed, will undoubtedly be the aristocracy of the profession. However, there will be no next five years the distinction of hierarchies between those who work in one medium or another, because the organizational model will be radically different. Story producers, editors and managers shall be connected with an enormous complexity, but on the basis that they are two means to be fed. "Finally, we will come to the relationship between adults.
figures and trends
Worldwide 8391 are printed daily, with a total circulation of just over a billion copies, or one every six people on the planet although the actual distribution is very uneven. In 1309 newspapers circulating in Latin America, 1630 in North America, 2115 in Europe, 224 in Africa, 140 in the Middle East, 2870 in Asia and 103 in the South Pacific.
In most developed countries, newspaper circulation dropped 8 percent overall in the last decade, while in Latin America and other developing markets and expanding population, the trend has been reversed in many cases. Overall, in fact, circulation of paid and free newspapers has grown over the past five years by 14 percent. According to WAN, the World Association of Newspapers, this increase was 9.95 per cent between 2000 and 2005.
Major U.S. newspapers, the loss of readers between 2004 and 2005 impacted so evident in the evolution of the shares of each company. Shares of The New York Times, for example, fell by 3.5 percent, the Tribune group lost 3 percent and the Washington Post, down 2.2 percent.
One strategy to attract new readers has been the launch of free newspapers, a phenomenon that has occurred in much of the planet. In February 1995 appeared to Metro, the underground distribution of Stockholm. Twelve years later, now total 169 free dailies with a circulation of 30 million copies in 40 countries.
One of the main reasons cited to explain the decline of newspapers in most developed countries is the migration of young readers to online news sites. An investigation by The Economist said that Britons aged between 15 and 24 spend 30% less time reading newspapers from the time they begin to use the Internet.
Despite the attractiveness of the immediacy that online newspapers have raised, however, very few cases of journalists who have left the paper to focus exclusively on its online edition. In this sense, newspapers have generally shown a good ability to adapt to the demands of readers and an attractive complement to their own digital version.
* * * Los Angeles Times A necessary metamorphosis compared to changing market leading daily newspaper The West Coast of the United States has drastically reduced the distribution of paper versions and is directing most of its resources and investments to develop site online, in part due to strong growth of the Latino community in its area of \u200b\u200binfluence, forcing the paper to fit the new demographic reality. Post-och Inrikes Tidningar
The digital media managed to save the world's oldest newspaper is the world's oldest newspaper still in circulation, according to the World Association of Newspapers. But the Post-och Inrikes Tidningar, which prints from 1645 by order of Queen Christina of Sweden, from 1 January this year only exists in digital form. Deals to publish official announcements of bankruptcies and foreclosures.
The Wall Street Journal The Journal of the financial community adapts to its readers for the Journal of the American financial community newspaper's transition from paper to screen seems natural, either by the particular language used in the securities industry or particular also for its reader profile: stock traders, managers and bankers who spend the entire workday in front of their computers.
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