Is There A Path Forward For Newspapers?
In “The Newspaper-Web War,” Slate presents an historically informed and stimulating piece on the historical battle between newspapers and radio in the early part of the last century. There are certainly corollaries we can draw from the original fight for newspapers’ lives as they struggled with radio newscasts that “stole” their content in the same way many in the industry charge web services like Google News will pilfering their product.
The newspaper industry and its allies have many grievances against the Web. They say the Web is parasitic, that it copies newspaper content and steals its advertising. They claim that Web creators will never provide the deep reporting that democracy needs and that newspapers provided before the Web arrived and ruined the media neighborhood. They want to tame the Web by rejigging copyright law. And they protest that the Web has undermined quality journalism by teaching readers to expect news for free.
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Newspapers had every right to carve out just and enforceable intellectual-property rights for their copy, but their crusade against radio often lapsed into full scale disparagement of the new media. Some print journalists and industry leaders claimed that radio content was inaccurate, skimpy, sensationalist, and trivial and that its practitioners were amateurs. When radio news was accurate, they asserted, it was either a bunch of headlines from a newspaper or a story directly pilfered from one. Does any of this sound familiar?
The bolded portion is, I think, where some newspaper leaders still are today. Perhaps five years ago, probably most in the industry were in that category, but as papers have been shutting down across the country – sped up somewhat by the recession – I think the industry mindset is beginning to shift dramatically.
Is there a path forward for newspapers? Yes, but only in the way that digital cameras haven’t entirely replaced disposable cameras. In other words, web has won — it’s quicker, more content rich and more readily transmittable than print — but print will remain, though diminished, because there will always be a desire for the digestible and disposable.
Of the struggling behemoths in the newspaper industry, groups like Philadelphia Media Holdings (which owns the bankrupt Philadelphia Inquirer), should probably pare back their print offering dramatically and focus on developing a stellar web delivery model. The New York Times is one of the few to develop a truly compelling and industry leading website, and even that brings in barely 10 percent of the revenue needed to sustain the Times.
There are a few things I think newspapers can do to survive, while at the same time making a name for themselves through the web. This certainly doesn’t represent a complete solution, but I think are some decent first steps:
- An In-Depth Sunday Print Edition
- Shrink Your Daily Print Edition
- Robust Web Community
- Investigative Reporting
- Local Columnists
- Digital Revenue Streams
Journalism by nature has been an industry defined by its pugnacity and its insistence on the facts and the delivery of the truth, as best as it’s known. The paper-and-ink model for breaking news began its decline when Matt Drudge broke the Lewinsky scandal through his then-little known ‘Report.’
The financial statements will increasingly necessitate boldness on both the news and business divisions for newspapers like yours and mine. The papers that thrive amongst the new media landscape will be those which make the tough decision to strategically cut their print and expand their web.
According to Peter Drucker, “the only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, and malperformance.” Newsmen and women need to take the reins – now – or else their fate will be sealed by their own inaction.
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