By Kwami Ahiabenu
II
Across
the globe, owners, managers and editors are kept awake over the uncertain
future of their industry. Some analysts
paint a gloomy picture of the newspaper industry, saying it will end up in the
grave yard; pushed to an early death by a number of factors which includes
access to “free news” online and inherently very reduced hardcopy sales.
Newspapers
were born in 59 B.C. when Acta Diurna was published in Rome. Since then, there
is ample evidence about the significant role they play in our societies
generally and as a pillar of democracy in particular. In recent times, there is
a major revolution in the media landscape fueled largely by the widespread and
ubiquitous availability of new digital technologies. Currently over 50% of the
world’s total population are unique mobile phone users sending over 8.7
trillion SMS messages annually with other applications such as WhatsApp, which
is very popular in Ghana, recording over 50 billion messages daily culminating in
an annual total of 18.3 trillion messages exchanged. A figure that far
surpasses traditional SMS.
All
these new developments have no doubt shaken the very foundation of newspapers,
leading to a moot question: are newspapers going to die?
In
many parts of the world newspapers sales are really starting to record a
decline due to a number of reasons; the rise of the electronic media, declining
revenue due to loss of advertising, stiff competition from online outlets,
increasing costs of production especially cost of newsprint, high costs of
distribution, rapid fall in circulation, advent of new digital technologies
which are making newspapers obsolete in their present format.
In
Ghana though newspapers are not declining, they are not experiencing any major
growth or expansion. There is no empirical data to support this assertion,
however anecdotal evidence point to the fact that over time newspapers in Ghana
have not grown in terms of new entrants to the market nor have existing ones
undertaken any major expansion. Simply put no body is rushing to set up a
newspaper in Ghana these days, the movement is towards establishment of radio
or TV stations.
In
a recent count, there are a little over 40 active newspapers in Ghana today. Most
of them weekly, with specialised ones focusing on issues such as business,
sports and lifestyle etc. There is no mainstream Sunday newspaper though a
number of papers come out on Saturdays. Over all readership rates and
subscriptions are drastically plummeting in Ghana not only due to the fact that
audiences can get news for free from online sources but also because content
from newspapers are distributed by radio and TV as well.
ARE
NEWSPAPERS FOREVER?
One
important factor ensuring that newspaper stand the test of time is that they
have significant brand value, which means that when they move their products
online, they record significant online followings. One will argue that in
Ghana, lack of reliable internet access coupled with an entrenched culture of
doing things non-electronically means, newspapers are still a preferred news
source. An interesting challenge for the health of newspapers, does not only
come from new digital technologies but from the plain old radio. The rapid development of radio stations cannot
be discounted in the discourse about the survival of newspapers since they are
eroding its influence. Newspapers beyond their news value, are also an important
information source for happenings in the society including advertisement of
goods and services which audiences consider valuable, therefore for some time
to come in Ghana, newspapers are going to continue to be relevant.
Furthermore,
journalists and their newspapers carry some amount of weight in terms of
credibility and authority, therefore unless a tangible replacement is found,
newspapers are not going to die overnight.
ODDS
ARE STACKED AGAINST NEWSPAPERS
Revenue
from newspapers both in terms of circulations and advertising are dropping. Largely
being eaten into by new forms of online news distribution. Moreover, some
advertisers do not see the value of putting ads in the newspapers since they
have other channels of pushing out their brands. Future generation especially
the youth simply do not see newspapers as news source, they will not buy a
copy, let alone read one online since they consume news from social media
outlets.
According
to Pew Research Centre (http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/newspapers-fact-sheet/) in USA, ad revenues continued to fall but
gains in digital ad revenue are failing to make up for falls in print ad
revenue. This is an important warning sign for newspapers they cannot expect to
recoup shortfalls in ad revenue by simply migrating online since there is no
guarantee setting up an online news channel will perform in terms of revenue
inflows.
Formerly
a typical news reader will have to wait for the newspaper to be delivered in
order for them to access news, currently there are a thousand and one online
news sources, simply put, you do not need a newspaper to read the news, you can
consume news via tablets, phones, computers or some other devices. Journalists
typically are not expected to be experts on subject matter they write about but
their key ability to serve as middlemen by speaking to experts and relaying it
to their audiences, however, due to growth in online information, users can
directly access such experts without journalists mediating. Therefore
newspapers in their traditional role as key middleman is now being eroded
rapidly. Nonetheless one can still argue that newspapers can transform to play
a curation role where they connect consumers to as many direct news sources as
possible directly playing minimum middleman.
STAYING
ALIVE
To
survive, newspapers must undertake a significant transformation by not only
publishing online but generating online news products which their audiences are
hungry for. Newspapers must stop burying their heads in the sand, since the
dire question becomes 'when will newspaper die' not ' if newspapers will die'
looms.
However,
there are some strategies that newspaper can pursue in order to arrest this
development while at the same time working to become relevant, sustainable and
profitable. A good start is to let go age old tested newspaper traditions which
are still very critical their operations and plot a new path of change. This can be accomplished by putting in place
written change strategies, which must be discussed with all newsroom members in
order to ensure their buy-in and smooth implementation. Such strategy should
focus on what needs to be changed, how the change process will be rolled out
and mitigation of change fallout. News room culture, roles and responsibilities
of each member, for example, journalists who were traditionally writing for
newspaper, now have to learn to become multimedia journalists with different
skills set.
Newspapers
have to learn new story telling techniques which can ensure the content they
serve invariably to their online audience reflect what their audiences want,
and in the manner they want to consume it. Monetisation of content online and
across new digital channels of distribution is critical, this calls for
deployment of new mechanisms of revenue generation by driving to market high
value online content and apps centered on mobile phone users who are growing by
the day.
****As part of its Future of News Event in
August, Penplusbytes, a leader in new media & innovations; tech & good
governance, and mining, oil & Gas, is pleased to release a series of future
of news articles. In the second of this series, we take a look at “Death of
Newspaper- Myth or Reality.”
Watch out for next article in
series: “Beyond news applications, what products can newsrooms offer.”
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