Print journalism is not dead. It isn’t dying, it’s not on its last breath nor has it even crossed the threshold into senior’s discount territory. Why are people so quick to discredit this industry’s chances for survival?
We all know that with the evolution of the internet and the creation of social media, it has become easy for people to communicate and share things online. Anyone can witness a newsworthy event, take an iPhone photo and write a tidbit about what went down. Fact checking and correct spelling not required. How does a newspaper printed once a day keep up to the evolving news stories that don’t recognize time or deadlines?
The answer to this is quite easy. We change. We cannot continue to abide by the same rules that were put into place so long ago. We need to recognize that there is a younger demographic that looks online for their news and understand that they still crave quality reporting.
This week, we have been asked by our instructor to write about one topic from a list that was provided. I am writing this loosely based on an article about a short-video start-up in New York called NowThis News.
They state that “journalism is a growth industry.” That makes me like them a whole lot right away.
NowThis News produces video news segments that are viewed and shared on mobile sites like Vine and Instagram, meaning some clips are as short as six seconds. They also have their own application that readers can download and instantly watch two-minute news stories. They target a younger audience that increasingly uses their mobile phones and social media to access news. According to Ed O’Keefe, editor in chief, the “Millennials” (those born between 1980 and 2000) are “just as interested in current affairs as their elders, but less likely to have cable television subscription and watch CNN, and less likely to wake up and check out the home pages of major newspapers online.”
They produce about 50 news segments per day, around the clock. NowThis News is proving popular— they have had between 15 and 20 million views per month through its app, not counting views on Vine or Instagram. O’Keefe says the Millennial generation is often misinterpreted as one that doesn’t care. “They are voracious news consumers. Once they come across a topic that’s interesting to them on social networks, they will start researching it deeply in other places online.”
Eventually, NowThis News intends to get into longer-form video as well. “There’s no reason we wouldn’t do a six-second Vine on Syria and a 60-minute documentary on Syria,” O’Keefe says.
While this is an interesting way to grab the attention of a younger audience, and certainly innovative in terms of positioning the news market, many of these shorter videos will essentially leave viewers hanging. A short 13-second clip cannot possibly tell the whole story, and may not even present a balanced piece. If it does in fact encourage people to research more about the topic, leading them to in-depth articles written by quality journalists, then I feel it could be successful. However, it is still left up to the consumer to do the research before forming an opinion and if not, they risk becoming biased.
Once again, NowThis News is an outlet in the United States, and they have experienced a much greater decline in the print journalism industry than Canada has. Newspaper outlets in the U.S. have faced closures and layoffs from extreme budget cuts. They have had to find creative ways to stay relevant to their audience.
I read an interesting letter to the editor in The Lethbridge Herald this summer from Suzanne Raitt, the Vice-President of Marketing & Innovation for Newspapers Canada. Her letter was titled “Misperception of Canadian newspapers” and it included statistics that you don’t read in the “American” articles about how the Canadian newspaper industry is thriving. Her letter (which I encourage you to read) can be found here: http://lethbridgeherald.com/commentary/opinions/2013/07/misperception-of-canadian-newspapers/
Print journalism is continuing to evolve, with writers keeping current in all facets of the journalism world. In our own program at school, we have become writers for newspapers, for online audiences, as well as videographers and podcasters.
If all forms of media were to work together to present information in all formats, it could be a solution to some of the problems presented in each one individually. Or it could spell the end of one form of media if competition disappears and content is too consistent. Where we will go is left to be seen, but as long as we are flexible and open to change, we will continue to thrive.
In the end, it all comes back to quality. Quality research, quality writing and dedication from journalists, whether writing for a newspaper, an online audience or a video. We have seen a revival in the record culture because the sound quality is more pure than an mp3 digital computer bite. People return to home cooking because they recognize the harmful effects of eating processed fast foods. There is a reason the book is always better than the movie. Am I dreaming to think that people will continue to enjoy reading a printed newspaper with a cup of coffee? Maybe…but I’d rather be a dreamer than a skeptic.