The end of newspapers

I’m not terribly keen to add my name to the end of the long list of wannabe pundits that have been gushing breathlessly about Web 2.0 since Tim O’Reilly first coined the phrase back in 2004. But there’s little doubt that the ways in which we use the Internet now are part of a broader movement towards communicating in wholly new ways – with attendant problems, peer pressures and protocol. As you might imagine, the impact is felt quite acutely by those in the news media. In fact, the Internet is arguably killing news media as we know it.

The impulses driving Web 2.0 adoption and the vast increase in online transactions are also driving a new, and incredibly powerful, synthesis of capabilities that is changing the way that we inter-relate, transact and, indeed, communicate. And the combination is as compelling, and as transformational, as the consequences of the day that Thomas Caxton drew a ‘p’ on his palm, clapped his hands together then found a ‘q’ on the other palm. And this new technology is eclipsing the revolution that Caxton started just as his innovation eclipsed the monastic scriptorium.

Journalism used to be something of a skill. You had to have at least a basic grasp of typography: when I explain to some of the young ‘uns I train these days that we actually measure type in units of 1/72” (that’s what a ‘point’ is) and that people used to hand justify the text in newspapers using little blank plates, they give me a look halfway between ‘you’re pulling my leg’ and ‘the old man’s off again’. But then they do that when I claim that we used to have to write memos to each other in long hand.

We are consuming information, news and much more, in very new ways. Go to Google Earth and fly to Petra. Take a tour, look at the photographs, look up the linked Wikipedia entries that are attached to the location, the information in the linked Visual Travel Guide or perhaps what’s going on over at the Google Earth Community – a user generated travel information community. It’s increasingly likely, that throughout your holiday planning and research you don’t actually read a single ‘printed word’. Have a think – where would you go for instant access to up-to-the-minute news? arabianbusiness.com, Yahoo! News, gulfnews.com. Probably not paper. Paper is, let’s admit it, so yesterday.

People are browsing the Internet using ‘phones, staying up to date using RSS feeds that alert them when new information is available online, using multiple information services and linking, saving, storing and accessing information in very new ways indeed. Look at services such as Netvibes, Technorati or Magnolia – all of which allow people to put the things they’ve found and liked into a virtual ‘box’ so that they can be brought out every now and then, admired and polished. Images, text, music, animations, video, podcasts. And these can all combine to create a very dynamic set of information feeds: all of which could come from individual sources or community groups versus traditional news organisations.

Today’s media are enormously influenced by the Internet, from using Wikipedia to do research through monitoring blogs to see what’s happening around them. Increasingly, their work is becoming ‘deconventionalised’ as it is being repurposed for online use – and as that use starts to become more commercially important than the ‘conventional’ print purpose, we will see print media transforming as it tries to stay competitive and relevant (a process already well underway in the UK) and journalism becoming a multimedia discipline rather than purely concerned with the ancient skills of words, grammar, type and layout.

This would all be just fine and dandy if it were only journalists that were being dragged kicking and screaming through the whirlwind challenge of change. But marketers and those providing communications counsel to marketing organisations have an enormous challenge facing them as the behaviour of consumers is changed by the Web. Many right now are still dismissive of the ‘fads’ that we’re seeing, whether that be Facebook or YouTube. And they are totally, fundamentally wrong. Because if they’re not using these technologies, their customers and consumers are. And while there’s nothing more pathetic than the PR agency whose answer to every communications challenge is ‘let’s do a blog’, there’s also nothing sadder than watching your competitor getting a lead on you because you were too ossified to understand that change is the only constant in our world.

Alexander McNabb is the group account director at Spot On Public Relations.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Things are changing
Posted by Samer Marzouq, Amman, Jordan on Thursday 7 February 2008 at 04:04 UAE time

Totally agree Alex, things are changing, the internet created a whole new world of people-powered media and journalism, it's a wave and everyone should ride it.

SO TRUE
Posted by Hussain M, Khobar, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday 22 January 2008 at 18:27 UAE time


yess the internet is the source of our up-to-the-minute news.

RSS feeds are a good way to stay upto date.

While its true many of us use the net for various types of media.
i on the other hand liek to use the net and enjoy a good online MMORPG or jsut play video games on the Xbox Live network.

Sadly though even though technology is moving forward.... our region is not, take KSA's STC for example.. having introduced "THE SUPER STATE OF THE ART 4MB DSL" only months ago... and at a rediculous price.
its easy to see how left behind we all are going to be when internet 2.0 comes out.

yes the world is changing....

the GCC is not.

so in th eend... for most of the people in the region with slow connections and/or dont have a computer or have no idea how to use one....well be sticking to our newspapers for a long time to come.

Extra, extra, read all about it!
Posted by Osama A., Cairo, Egypt on Tuesday 22 January 2008 at 10:37 UAE time


I couldn't agree with you more. I am a fanatic when it comes to RSS feeds, as an open source user of linux, I use liferea as my rss leecher, and have 25 rss subscriptions ranging from news media sources to entertainment websites to just about anything else. From what I've noticed and NOT speaking from a mainstream point of view, the people that I encircle with mainly use rss feeds as well. It's not a matter of saving time rather than getting rid of all the clutter. Some news websites are simple in design and show the headlines in a nice manner, whilst other news websites clutter more than half of the page with advertising and have settings that are more towards the nature of tabloids which is just pure visual pollution. I think Newspapers should also start to consider other technologies such as electronic readers, flexible epaper and such. obviously cost and mass distribution is the main target of any newspaper company. I think it's about time for someone to take a small risk and try it out on the masses and see how the public will react to such technologies.

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