Will newspapers disappear by 2040?

On 5 August 2013, leading American newspaper Washington Post’s headquarters was unusually busy.

A meeting of employees was to be held shortly. Into the packed hall entered chairman and chief executive Donald E. Graham, and his niece and publisher, Katherine Weymouth. The air was thick. The duo put to the meeting a difficult truth. The newspaper was to get a new boss! Jeffrey P. Bezos of Amazone.com would buy the daily for $250 million in cash.

Both the uncle and the niece took turns in breaking the news and answering their questions. Many in the audience wept, unable to stomach the news. Yes. The 138-year-old daily needed a golden handshake. It was ailing financially. And there was no way out for this influential newspaper that shaped American politics. That brought to light Watergate scandal causing President Richard Nixon to resign.

“The rise of Internet and the epochal change from print to digital technology have created a massive wave of competition for traditional news companies”, said WashingtonPost.com. This according to it scattered readers and advertisers, causing bankruptcies.

Close to this, The New York Times, struggling from falling revenue sold its arm Boston Globe newspaper for $ 70 million in 2013. The NYT bought the paper in 1993 for $1.1 billion, one of the biggest buyouts in American media history. Just two decades later, the company sold it for a cheap price.

Another high profile sell out was of the Newsweek, once the global leader in magazine journalism, to billionaire Sidney Harman in 2011. Founded in 1933, it was closely competed with Time magazine, and had 12 global editions. Its English editions were available in all continents, and the magazine was also published in languages including Japanese, Polish, Korean and Spanish. It had a big fall. After closing print editions, it migrated to internet.

Two years later in 2015 things seem grimier than ever. Newspapers are reporting negative growth across US and Europe. Highlighting this recently, UN intellectual agency Chief Francis Gurry said newspapers would disappear by 2040. There left only 15-years life for them. In the USA, it will be dead in two years. Considering the ground realties there, you could put a much closer date.

With this may go hundreds and thousands of media jobs, too. Layoffs, salary cuts, are very common now. Many have already migrated to different jobs where their writing and editing skills are of no use. A large number of former journalists work as marketing executives, or property developers. In Canada last year, Sun Media, the largest newspaper chain there, stopped its eight dailies, closing 360 jobs and cutting 500 positions.

Many other newspapers, according to a top former US journalist, have done away with position like editor-in-chief and publisher, while outsourcing copyediting and layout. Sooner you could expect US and UK newspapers outsourcing copyeditors from India.

It’s very serious in UK where a new survey finds sharp decline in sales, a cut by 7.6 per cent between March 2014 and March 2015.

Some of the leading dailies like Sun, Daily Sport, Daily Record( they are known as red-tops because of their red masthead), recorded 10 per cent decline. If it goes at this rate, they will disappear in a few years time.

Iconic newspaper The Guardian suffered largest sales decline with 9.5 per cent fall. So is The Telegraph with 8.4 per cent spiral.

According to official audit by UK’s ABBC, newspaper market is falling at a rate of more than 8 per cent a year.

That is shocking. Blame Internet, mobile phones, social media, generally; that is what media pundits are doing now. Of course, internet has spawned a new kind of consumers, who don’t pay for things they consume. Because, someway or other stories will emerge on internet, making them less exclusive. Some newspapers tried to tap this source by charging subscription from online users. Although it was successful in the beginning, online newspapers now report falling subscription rates. Even if all online newspapers together restrict access through payment, people won’t care about it; because, if you restrict access, they will go to where it is free of charge.

The crisis has another face like what James Surowiecki, economic writer, pointed out in The New Yorker. Just as big papers, he said, have become less profitable, they’ve arguably become more popular. The funny side is there is an overwhelming demand for news. All kinds of news.

People surfing internet look for news, features, travelogues, utility information, and all that stuff and but internet doesn’t put any journalist in the street. The traditional media still send people out to collect stories. However, with the mobile phones today, everybody is a reporter. That may be a revolution, but at the cost of newspapers.

Online reader is a busy person, may be working at office alongside surfing. He will linger to a site only if it excites him. Or else he will go to where it is available. It is like people switch TV channels using remote control. If a story, however interesting, is lengthy, they have no time for it. The internet has actually made editors to re-consider the nature of reporting, use of language, and captioning. Everything has to be made more attractive and appealing.

The situation makes it all the more difficult for newspapers. Perhaps, they have to try new ways to remain relevant. Who will turn to papers to read a- day –old-stories, when people get news updates by every minute? None. That is where print media is going to face a bleak future. Still, there are some exclusive areas for them. For example:

• Do readers surveys, social surveys, and switch over from just reporting to become social activists.
• Fill the pages with people-interest stories
• Bring out more grassroots level issues and fight for them.
• Carry more analytical features and reports instead of day-old news stories.
• They have to become more reader friendly by doing more ‘exclusive stories’.
• Let internet follow print media not the other way round.

(The views expressed are personal)