The print newspaper is endangered but journalism is what will keep it alive.

Their dire situation does not stem from a dissipation of the thirst for knowledge; in fact I would argue that today’s generation consumes more information, multimedia and news than any before us.

Information is real-time, free and available from cellphones, mp3 players, syndicated digital feeds, netbooks, notebooks and PCs; in print and I guess in the form of the television news as well – If anything we are faced with information overload. Information and news are flowing faster and on a grander scale than we have ever seen before.

Why then are the newspapers being left out of the party?

The issue is clearly not demand or consumption of news but why then have we seen such as steep drop in readership and the fall of many prolific newspapers across North America?

The issue is a fundamental shift in the valuation of the product by the consumer. In the digital age, real time news is broadcasted, archived and immediately searchable whether it be by Google, CNN, Twitter or blogs. In a world where a single search will present hundreds of opinions, voices and perspectives on any given news item – who can we say really owns the news and – more importantly, why should I pay you for it if I can find the same information on a public search engine.

In the future, newspapers will not be able to survive merely by distributing news. For decades the newspaper has been the aggregator of information and the finely groomed image of the community through the letters to the editor. the problem they now face is that the power and privilege bestowed to them to publish has been negated through the reduction in the barriers to entry for citizen journalism, the rise of social media and the evolution of the web as a platform to facilitate social aggregation of information.

In the world of social media, control is naive, current events and information flow are unfiltered and conversations can’t be stifled by the paper shredder of the editors office. No one owns the conversations and thus no one owns the news.

So where do newspapers fit in the picture?

I believe they have future however it requires them to take a step back and evaluate their stance in the new playground.

Why they need to change

The newspaper as a medium is ineffective.
Quite simply the newspaper doesn’t make sense, the way we search for information and the way we consume it has changed. The digital medium allows us to identify content that is pertinent to our needs and the role of aggregation has been taken over by the people, in essence we determine which articles are relevant and pertinent.

The information stream online can be searched and accessed real time by mobile, laptop and pc – quite simply the newspaper can’t compete on that level. If you are looking for the weather report, stock reports or daily headlines, there really isn’t any added benefit of picking up a print copy.

They don’t own the news
One of the biggest issues newspapers are having on the web is that there is no distinguishing identifier of content online, no one regards the history of the newspaper, they click on the first result that comes from a search. According to Gawker, several newspapers recently tried to convince Google to manipulate their page rank algorithm to give their content more weight than that of bloggers and other online sources. This would of course be in the face of the underlying principle of the internet by which the content that is most viewed by the people floats to the top. For newspapers that have been the bottleneck of information in many communities, they are learning that they no longer control the channels

News is broken in real time quicker than a newspaper ever could through Twitter, blogs or other channels online as was shown in the emergency landing of an US Airways flight in the Hudson river. News is public property and delivering the news in itself is not a differentiator.

People need the newspapers
The one problem faced with the digital media is that the reduction of the barriers to entry means that anyone can broadcast or post information online. The issue is that bloggers are not journalists, they don’t have the training, editorial oversight or necessarily the credibility.

Journalists play a key role in our society, policing the government and democracy, giving us oversight and unbiased investigative journalism. There are no quality checks for bloggers and though they play an important role in citizen journalism, we need to prioritize and support the dedicated professional and critical oversight that stems from journalism.

How they will come out on top

Leverage their brand
Newspapers have years of history and an authoritative role in society which gives them a head start on any blogger or even independent journalist. They have the resources of credibility and collective team of skilled journalists at their disposal. Offline media still has clout and reach, and they have to leverage it to ensure they retain a dominant position with new media.

Sell expertise not news
News and current events are brand-less on the internet, there are countless sources of current events news on the internet and if newspapers want to compete and retain their readership they need to look at carving their niche.

The future of newspapers isn’t in news but rather in leveraging the intelligent insight and expertise of experienced journalists.

The majority of bloggers don’t have the editorial oversight that journalists have and in a world where hundreds of blogs are created everyday, newspapers need to stand out and leverage their credibility.

Authors of newspaper articles are usually only acknowledged in the byline of the article and with the exception of the most seasoned journalists, their credentials and resume are seldom marketed. However in the online space, they are competing with millions of bloggers and thousands journalists on a local, national and global scales. Authors and journalists have to become a integral part of marketing to differentiate content.

Newspapers have valuable content and an advantage in talented and reputable journalists however they need to rethink ‘the news’ and their points on differentiation when competing on the global platform.

Multiple channels
For many centuries the newspaper and the written word was the most effective medium for spreading information, it allowed people to share and retain more reliable information with more people. With the web, mobile, blogs and microblogging we have changed the landscape and newspapers have to look at the value they provide to their customers rather than just the product they have become accustomed to providing.

The future of the newspapers isn’t banked in a single medium and instead should focus of delivering information effectively and leveraging user engagement through the advantages of each medium. Personally I am not too excited about e-book readers as a medium – not because of any shortcomings of e-book readers but rather a fear that many will try to rehash newspaper content on another medium creating a flat and impersonal experience.

I am very excited to see what the team from Toronto startup Spreed have up their sleeves. They are working with several newspapers and media channels and doing some interesting things such as the Globe & Mail iPhone app. In my conversations with Director of Marketing Dave Coleman, he has really emphasised the need to evolve the way newspapers approach these mediums to provide value to reader using multimedia, real time content and user engagement and participation.

Sadly for newspapers there needs to be some restructuring and rethinking of their business model but I believe they still have an important role to play. In their forays into new media, simply rehashing print strategy is not sufficient, they need to look at new technologies from the perspective of digital natives, innovate and provide value by leveraging the advantages of each medium.

At the end of the day, we have to ask – what is the newspaper’s product? Advertising or information.

Photo credit, JB Curio