Saturday, September 03, 2005

Media_what's the potential future for newspapers?


Have you still read newspaper? I guess more than 50 percent of the youth between 20 to 25 would say no. Even before I work in the current newspaper, I don't read it in print, too. So does newspaper still have the market?

Newspaper is hard to report spot news now coz it couldn't report it anytime as Internet/wires do. Newspaper stories are also not research-based and well-written as reporters don't have enough time to cover all in one day. The only advantage for newspaper is that some readers are still used to reading newspaper every day, not every second, or every week. But will that last long?

Some newspaper does a good job. New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times still post good-quality articles as well as inside news. But for the others, the job is easies, with following news wires and writing simple stories, which could only keep current readers without expanding more.

So what's the future for newspapers????

5 comments:

Marc van der Chijs said...

Hi Amy, it seems the comment spammers have found you as well :-(

I hardly ever read print newspapers anymore (I used to subscribe to two papers). I follow most news through blogs, and through online papers. The only time I read a paper is big Sunday paper when I am travelling, and want to spend a Sunday morning drinking coffee and reading.

Possibly electronic paper may make a difference. Reading a newspaper online is a hassle, but when electronic paper is hitting the market I might consider subscring to a newspaper that can be read on this format. The good thing is that you can always take it with you, and it's always the latest issue (as long as the electronic paper has some wifi connectivity).

I think only high-quality papers or maybe niche market papers can survive. Indeed the high-quality NYT is one of the few papers that I read in my RSS reader. Before I used RSS I hardly ever read it, so this paper gained a reader by having RSS feeds. If it would become available in an electronic paper version I might actually be willing to pay for it.

Another thing I might be willing to pay for is newspapers from Holland (my native country). If in the future I could read the weekend paper in a different way than on my laptop screen I might be willing to pay for that.

I am afraid most papers won't survive. Only the very best will still be there in 10-15 years, the rest will be taken over by blogs and news organizations feeds.

Amy Gu said...

hoho, I wonder what is the criteria for spammers to choose blog to leave comment.

Yes, I think newspaper will survive if it doesn't not keep its tradition, which only focuses on immediate news. They should try to attract more readers by providing what they wants, such as RSS and more research-based stories. But unfortunately, as many editors who are used to design the newspaper in the traditional way, it may takes some time for them to see the trends. In the meantime, the hard competition between newspapers have already begun... also in China where all media are state-owned.

Marc van der Chijs said...

Bromgrev: what I meant with electronic paper is a new kind of paper that can be re-used. It is like a thin monitor in the form of paper. A basic version was introduced by Philips on an electronics fair last week. It can be rolled up, so you can put it in your pocket.

Papers should use this technology to win back (or gain new) readers.

Amy Gu said...

hoho, add the text-verification and also account verification, though making things a little troublesome. Spammers are not a big problem, but someone who really hate me would always like to comment here annoymous.

Amy Gu said...

wow, the sites are all cool stuffs,dq. I think why newspaper still exists in this digital media is it is easy to read anywhere anytime. You couldn't bring a laptop all the time, for example in the washingroom, but you could bring the newspaper:)

That's why newspaper industry is not hit as much as music industry. You could hear music all the time with an iPod or Mp3, but the easily-taken-with digital newspaper haven't be created. But I would like to say the newspaper still alive in a digital media, though it is not "paper" yet, haha. It should be called "e-news-daily" something.