Find Out Why Newspapers Will Never Be the Same Again
Posted: Friday, May 29, 2009
by Steve Kovacs
The Kovacs Perspective
I love to eat a meal and read the newspaper. Whether it's my local paper or a National one like USA Today, I enjoy diving into a meal and becoming immersed in what is happening around the globe while I eat. I suppose it's a bad habit, but I figure there are worse habits one can have, so I continue to chomp away while I read the paper. However, I may have to find new reading material. Newspapers are dying.
Recently, my local newspaper, which is a major metropolitan paper, has been trying their best to have a quality and desires paper. They have gone from being a one-sided, biased paper to a down the middle, fair and balanced one with outstanding investigative and no-holds barred reporting. They have trimmed the unnecessary fat and have become a lean, mean, newspaper machine. The bad news is that it may all be in vain.
The Internet is not going anywhere and the fact of the matter is that every day more and more people are gravitating to the Internet for their news and in turn, advertisers are following them. Where people go, advertisers go. Therefore, change is occurring and will continue to occur. Change is not necessarily bad though. There are several basic truths in the world, and one of them is that everything changes. Not completely or drastically perhaps, but change does occur.
Two major questions loom. Will we have newspapers in five or ten years? The answer is yes. Will they be different from what they are now? Unquestionably yes. Recently, the famous newspaper company, Hearst, turned its 140-year old Seattle Post-Intelligencer to a scaled-down online publication offering mostly commentary. Not a great model for change and vibrancy for papers generally, and certainly not what will help them survive across the country. For newspapers to at minimum, do better, I believe they must focus on local news in their ink and paper version, coupled with an on-line version. The correct mix of traditional and Internet and their specifics will be the challenge for papers.
Will people pay for this type of mix? According to Jeff Jarvis, who runs the City University of New York's interactive journalism program "there's a market demand for quality journalism and reporting", and newspapers have the staff, experience and tools to offer us just that.
I hope newspapers never lose their traditional versions. If they do, my meals will never be the same and I suspect many people's first cup of morning coffee will never be the same either.
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Top-level comments on this article: (5 total)I agree. I too used to love reading the paper with my morning coffee, or catching it during lunch. Now I don't bother so much, perhaps because my local paper (Austin American-Statesman) has gone the other way: too much filler. It seems to be nothing but ads, and when you finally get to an article, it is usually not objective reporting but slanted reporting plus (with commentary). I agree newspapers will always be with us, yet as you say they must report the news and leave the commentary and opinions to the bloggers and millions of sites out there which don't offer hard news.Newspapers will change, as they must, and those who don't will perish.Great job.
how true...great stuff...
hi steve,i guess the saying, "if it's not broke don't fix it" is obsolete in this competitve arena. there will be just as much competition online as in print. if the look of the website doesn't feel right, people will go to the next one.so much has changed with the internet flourishing, some good, some bad. the post office has lost millions to e mail, and card stores to online card sites.i hope you get to keep your newspaper to go with your meal:)maybe you shold keep one just in case, and learn to pretend:)my best regards,sueI agree the Internet does and will have tons of competition and I loved how you worded “if it doesn’t feel right, people will go to the next one”, that’s exactly how it is and will be—and as for saving a paper just in case—I’ll just read food labels…sounds exciting doesn’t it? Thanks for writing.
I'm assuming you eat dinner alone? :) I love nothing better than a coffee with the Sunday morning paper, it just wouldn't be the same reading it on line. Good article Steve.Ever since I started whipping out a newspaper and reading in front of people during dinner everyone refuses to eat with me! Can't figure it out! Maybe I need to change my deodorant.
Great article. Well done.I share your like for reading a newspaper with a meal. I like to read it with breakfast when it is "fresh off the press".Thanks for reading and your positive comment Connor. Fresh off the press—I like that!
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