Introduction
Perhaps it is because people have been associating print media with mechanical printing technologies and papers for more than 500 years (since the time of Johannes Gutenberg A.D.1450). To many, the feel and texture of the paper, the smell of the ink, the image of carrying a "pink paper" in the morning, still make them feel close and secure. So, it is not surprising to know that so many people find it difficult to separate them in their minds.
The concept of e-newspaper, to them, especially those who benefit from the old ways, is always frightening. And I know even I print my words on the finest paper telling them that the future of newspaper business is digital or electronic editions would one day outdo the newsprint editions, those die-hard supporters will still stick to where they belong.
Therefore, I am just going to tell them some hard facts, and what are the new options can new media provide. (If you are happened to be an open-minded person, unlike those people, don’t bother to read.)
Facts and trends
"1998, a consortium of companies with the backing of the European Community has already demonstrated the potential of such a device, which it named the NewsPAD. And it is not alone. Other companies in Japan and the United States are known to be developing a variety of consumer appliances known as portable document viewers (PDVs) or tablets."
"In October 1999, some two dozen leading designers, editors and publishers from the United States, Canada and Europe gathered in Reston, Virginia, for an American Press Institute seminar titled “Newspaper Design: 2020.” Several participants eloquently argued that the printed newspaper is too deeply rooted in our culture to be replaced by a computer screen and that electronic displays are unlikely to be as readable as paper anytime soon. When Bill Hill, a Scotsman from Microsoft's e-book development group, pulled a hand-held computer from the pouch attached to the front of his kilt and demonstrated a prototype of Microsoft's new e-Book Reader with ClearType technology, doubts about reading on electronic displays seemed to dissipate."
"In Spring 2001, Adobe Systems Inc. and Crain Communication Inc. agreed to sponsor a pilot study proposed by Roger Fidler, director of Kent State University's Institute for CyberInformation and a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC), to evaluate an e-newspaper concept."
"On 16 July 2002, WHSmith Online, a division of WH Smith PLC, the largest book and magazine retailer in the UK, announced that its award-winning eBookstore is the first online bookseller to offer eBooks in the Palm Reader TM format."
The New York Times has gone from making a US$7.5 million loss on its web site in 2001 to an US$8 million profit in 2002. Asia Times Online's readers have risen from 26,000 per day in January to 65,000 in April this year. In the UK, FT.com has seen its subscriber base rise from 17,000 last July to 53,000 in April, while the site's regular readership has risen to 3.5 million. Europe's online readers are growing rapidly, too. According to emarketer, there will be more than 190 million Internet users across the continent this year.
And This December, the BBC is using the 3G phones, which can send video and sound from mobile phones and put them on TV, for undercover reporting.
From the above, we can discover those forward-looking leaders are betting on the digital future, and so far so good.
Newspaper or oldspaper
I can read today's New York Times pretty much everywhere in the world on the Internet. It looks similar to the print version, provides much more information than the print version, and it updates every ten minutes, and more importantly, it is free.
At 3 am or 3 pm, I can still get a quick overview of the world on the Internet. Sometimes I just want to know some old information. Now from the Internet archives, I can read last week's New York Times, or listen to or watch the news programs that were broadcast last night, last week, or last year.
So, why upset because you find you cannot keep up with media schedule? Why not just keep up with your own schedule? Why in a rush when you find you can always keep track with the most up-to-date information on the Internet?
News has always emphasized recent events; that's why it is not called the “olds.” Compared with ever-updating electronic versions, are you sure you would still call those “dead tree” versions “newspaper” or you would call it “oldspaper”?
“The Daily Everybody” or “The Daily Me”
Traditional mass media has become less capable to meet the highly individual information needs. Journalists judge what people like by ratings and readership. But why should we let them shape our view of the world and tell us what to think about when sometimes they just want us to behave according to their financial and political interests?
Nowadays the technology has already allowed us to specify the topics of our interests and provided us with our own “Daily Me”. So, it does have to be “Daily Everybody,” when you know you can take control. Remember when you don’t have a plan for yourself, others will have.
But I would agree that one of the great advantages of the printed newspaper is that it has an end to it. When readers finish paging through the newspaper, they feel they are up to date. Online, users remain insatiable and uncomfortable because the information is simply too much. To tackle that, we need to know what exactly the information we want. So we won't be clueless or frustrating any more.
Besides, some may complain that “The Daily Me” will boost human isolation. Because it represents a wall we build around ourselves. Indeed, there is some truth to this concern. But it is a problem only if we make a determined effort to limit our exposure to the ever-growing information.
Time to say goodbye?
According to World Association of Newspapers, the circulation of worlds' newspapers is declining. But we can see that newspapers have improved their content, design. And most would agree that the printing quality and content design could almost never be better. Obviously, the ink-on-paper newspapers have been pushed to their limit. But that does mean newspapers are doomed. However, repositioning themselves in the market seems to the only way out.
Take De Morgen, a Belgium newspaper, for example. They told readers that the newspaper is like someone you trust that helps you make the selection; the newspaper is your personal gatekeeper. We help turn information into knowledge. To achieve such a role, we started to focus on opinion-forming and public debate.”This strategy paid off as circulation of De Morgen has doubled in recent years.
If the newspaper companies can combine this strategy with digital publishing technologies (to cut down the cost), they won't have to say “Sayonana”.
Conclusion
"Just as horses did not die out after the invention of horseless carriages, paper is unlikely to disappear with the invention of “paperless” display and storage media." Like the horse, paper simply will be repurposed and valued differently in the next century.
I believe the digital revolution is unstoppable (we cannot cancel it anyway). Although I am optimistic about the digitalization, I still think the traditional newspaper and e-newspaper are likely to coexist and coevolve. The adoption of digitalization is a transition, not a termination.
After all, many of us still like the authors to autograph on our books, rather than writing on the plastic case of our laptops.
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