Print is dead?

Ahead of tonight's talk (Print is dead: long live new media) take a look at my news reader this morning. It's dominated by news feeds from traditional media sources (The Guardian newspaper and PR Week in my case). Only one solitary PR blogger interrupts the stream of news from professional reporters (the energetic Trevor Cook).

One hypothesis suggests that new media will replace old media; this is supported by the closure of some magazines and the decline in circulation (and advertising revenues) of most newspapers. Another hypothesis argues that the traditional skills of the news journalist (speed, selectivity, accuracy, compelling storytelling, editing) gain new value online; that there's new life in old brands.

Notice how both hypotheses can be true when traditional media adapts for an online future.

Comments

[Chris Norton]

Hi Richard, I like it a very interesting post. I think both of the points you make are true but may I add a third. I think its actually going to be a combination of the two.

Powerful, well written blogs can sometimes have more influence on a select amount of people than a national newspaper or even a TV channel. The people subscribed and reading that blog already have a relationship with that particular blogger and that can often carry more weight.

I also think that new media is flipping traditional media and journalism on its head. I am sure there will be good well-read bloggers out there getting job offers from national newspapers as we speak. This can surely only be a good thing for the standard of good quality interesting and newsworthy journalism.

Chris

[David Child]

Interesting post Richard and a good comment you made tonight - I'd be keen to hear what you have to say though about the absence of any student who still reads a newspaper. I've written a post about it and would welcome your thoughts: http://quest-pr.blogspot.com/2008/02/hands-up-who-still-reads-newspaper.html

[John]

Good post Richard. Most of the print publishers are using web to circulate their publications in order to increase their revenue. When compare to traditional publishing, there are more benefits from e-publishing as instant reach, global presence, less production cost, attracting the advertisers, etc…
If you take the survey predictions, then there is rapid increase in readership rate. Companies like www.pressmart.net providing the digitization services for all print publications. By using these kinds of services, publications can be circulated by the mediums of web, RSS, social media, IPod, mobile, etc…