The Hindu Business Line : Whither newspapers?

THE jitters over the future of newspapers keep erupting regularly, occasioned by the power and pervasiveness of the electronic media. The ensuing debates, on the one hand, offer grim forebodings of the inevitable demise of the printed word and, on the other, look anxiously for hopeful signs of its possible survival.

The interesting part is that for all the intensity with which arguments on either side are advanced, there is as yet no clear conclusion in sight.

As a recent commentary by the Columbia University put it: "Nowadays, news consumers have an almost unlimited choice. They don't sit down with a newspaper for an hour to read it cover to cover. Instead, they bounce from site to site, story to story, link to link, customising their newsgathering experience, clicking on whatever stories from whatever publications appeal to them. They don't stick around long, but they do visit."

Mr Rupert Murdoch, while addressing the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 13 about the role of newspapers in the modern age, mentioned a study by Carnegie Foundation, according to which Americans between 18 and 34 preferred to get their news from the Web, and that their favoured destinations were Internet portals. Forty-four per cent surfed a portal at least once a day for news, compared to 19 per cent reading newspapers.

The same study found that the print media was thought to be trustworthy by nine per cent, useful by eight per cent, and entertaining by four per cent. It is on the cards that newspapers — and the long-winded commentaries dished out by them — may lose out to the Web in the foreseeable future.

To quote the Columbia University write-up again: "... newspapers are steadily losing readers and that younger people will undoubtedly choose the Web. Ultimately, the printed word will die off. Not tomorrow or the next day, but in the coming decades. It is inevitable since it will be more cost-effective (not to mention better for the environment) to distribute news over the Web and via cell phones and PDAs than by printing it on paper and relying on trucks to deliver it to newsstands and subscribers' doorsteps."

Ways of forestalling this dismal prospect confronting those in the newspaper business deserves their serious attention.

B. S. Raghavan

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