In the present and future age of new media, what is likely to fate of traditional newspapers in years to come?
The above question shared by Lekan Otufodunrin, Managing Editor, Online of The Nation on his facebook timeline recently, generated a range of responses on what needs to be done for newspapers to remain relevant as a channel of information dissemination.
The sum total of the responses reproduced below is that newspapers and journalists cannot afford to continue to operate the way they used to.
The situation according to the respondents calls for urgent restructuring of print media business model, mastery of the use of news media tools and convergence of traditional and news media skills.
GbelelaOlabisi Michael More energy should be devoted to investigative and precision journalism! Nobody is running after development/updates on publicized stories any longer!
AbiodunFataiWasiu The Newspaper will still remain because there are facts to be confirmed unlike New Media where there cant be confirmed or verified
Olusegun Afolaranmi Credibility will stand out the very few that will survive the competition
LekanOtufodunrin GbelelaOlabisi Michael will it remain the way it is now? As many as we have now? With as many journalists as are employed now?
FarukAdejoh-Audu I will suggest that it’s the beginning of the end sir. Some 50years from now, newspapers will only be sighted in museums. I think this should be obvious to every discerning person by now. But the journalism professional will keep waxing stronger.
LekanOtufodunrin I agree. Journalists will always be needed and the profession will wax stronger with new skills and concepts
LekanOtufodunrin I get this feeling that many traditional journalists are not sufficiently agitated. Some think new media is a fad
Augustine Avwode The 2015 General Election vividly brought home the reality of the New Media and unambiguously pointed to the direction of journalism going forward in the country. It will be suicidal for any serious minded journalist to dismiss the the New Media as a mere FAD that will fizzle out. As for traditional newspapers, they won’t die but the competition will be asphyxiating.
Joseph Muyiwa To be sincere, the only thing that will never die in this world is Tech and that is because it keeps fashioning new enhanced ways to lead life better.
Journalism has met a better match which is the rise of the new media. This new media was created by Tech. The fate of Journalists is the ability to master the online and new creative means of writing.
Nobody wants papers again. My Dad is the only one that prefers reading papers. I would rather read things online myself, than buy a paper at the stand.
Journalists should move from being just journalists. No form of journalism can actually help this time, production of books has become costly, so also the cost of producing print. There is space for journalists in content provision online, ghostwriting, info graphics, coding and all forms of Data Journalism. If as a journalist, you can’t freelance or adapt to other forms of writings, the feature is really bleak.
The Newspaper will phase out slowly just like the era of telegraphs giving way to phones and lanterns giving way to rechargeable lamps. Credibility or not, people in my generation who are more in tune to reading online blogs will lead to a new trend in media. But Journalism must find a way to survive all the odds
GbelelaOlabisi Michael News print will always evolve! If it is not in museums in America, UK or South Africa where with the inroad of internet and social media, news print thrives! We just have to do something different from what is obtainable in the cut and paste sector! People are still paying for soccer club newsprint subscription, preferred newspapers around the world! Something must be the kick! Despite the biting economic climate, I will still come across men clutching newspaper inside molue and vendors are still selling in traffic!
Silas O. Abayomi Newspapers are dead. Before the arrival of internet, social and convergence media, newspapers in western hemisphere, especially, in United States had faced terrible, perhaps a bleak future.
Great newspapers in the cities of New-York, Chicago, Los-Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia started to experience decline in sales for three main reasons:
1) Decline in subscription because of decline in reading culture.
2) Decline in Advertisements because of shrinking economic activities from globalization.
Recall, a lot of American giants closed production factories relocated to Asia, South America, and Southeast Asia because of reduced cost in production.
3) The political and economic climate in America from Clinton to George Bush (jr.) Obama, and current administration give American corporations wide latitude to operate.
And since these entities are so powerful, even than some government, their impacts have shaped mankind entire socio-economic and political system, resulting in scientific revolution;
a revolution that favors one organ, but unfavorable to another
LekanOtufodunrin The future is really worrisome and we need to come to terms with the fact and take necessary steps. Corporate organizations with take business decisions leaving individual journalists to their fate.
Linda Diokpa That is why many journalists need to brace up and update their new media skills. There will be a time only a few newspapers will be seen on the streets.
Dayo Emmanuel When the television came people thought the end had come for the radio, when photography came, people thought it was all over for painting. I feel the newspaper will continue but may only redefine it’s operations. Very soon newspaper administrators would realise how unprofitable it is to keep 200 workers where in a month a reporter from Bauchi would have only five stories. Newspapers won’t die but reshape
OlolaSeunAkioye This is my belief too, the problem like Editor asked is do we know it is raining, do we recognise the need to reshape, have we the creativity to reshape
MadunaguEmeka Newspapers will not die. What newspapers need to do is to become media enterprises able to engage in different kinds of endeavour. New York Times has evolved from a mere newspaper to s global brand, offering different kinds of products and services. Same for many others.
CordeliaOnu Even big newspapers in developed countries are feeling the heat. Offer both hard and soft and make sure both are excellent
OlugbengaOsinaike I think the new media is the way to go but it will be difficult for the print to go under. The print is immortal. It has survived all forms of media. It is credible and it has a face. Tbe new medium is the rave of the moment it will keep gathering momentum and would soon reach a crescendo. The greatest odd against new media is credibility.
LekanOtufodunrin Newspapers will remain but we also have credibility issues.
OlugbengaOsinaike You are very right sir. But I think one is more credible than the other. In the case of libel who do we hold responsible in the new media? That is one area that I think has to be worked on. Perhaps the players in the new media should begin to look at how to ensure that news on the social media have a human face and a fixed physical address
ChinedumUwaegbulam In Nigeria, the print will continue to evolve due to the inability of mobile companies to provide reliable data network and advertisers apathy to online medium.
LekanOtufodunrin Evolve or die. Online advert budget increasing. Advertisers know we don’t have the reach we claim we have. Data sure to get better
OluyinkaAdebanjo- Shokunbi Very true and correct! The new media is gradually evolving and reshaping it’s focus especially with professional and credible Journalists taking over!
Joseph Muyiwa http://www.truth-out.org/…/41360-journalism-is-dying…
I love the topic Editor put up and I guess this is the best place to put this post up for leading journalists to see some of the issues I have been investigating for awhile now.
Read this link to know more. I actually concur with everything written in this post. It lays the matter bare. We are actually in the media of content marketing and that is the bigger war journalism is facing
PeluAwofeso My simple suggestion (maybe not the only solution) to give newspapers some hope of survival: remove the older generation of editors and let younger, tech-savvy younger folks take the helm. Our publications need a lot of lift — in design and aesthetics especially. They have to catch the eye to have a chance to be picked up. We tell journalists to craft killer headlines and leads; publishers and editors must be told to produce papers with killer cover and inner pagers. NEXT stirred up the system nicely and publications upped their layout; NEXT dies and they all went back to their dour old ways.
LekanOtufodunrin Days of old school editors numbered. We need editors who understands the new media and how to use it.
Eniola Joseph OlukayodeOlatunji I disagree with this view that older Editors be eased out. If there are evidences that the old Editors are upgrading, their experience will be a tremendous asset in these trying times. My take is that Newspapers with aggressive pursuit of scoops rather than the event or reactionary reporting will be in circulation. We need Editors who actually knows the great news behind the news.
Kenneth Afor Jr. As long as readers are still alive newspaper will still be in existence.
A huge task lies ahead for publishers in this part of the world. Millions of copies of New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian UK, Times of London, The Sun etc are still being sold daily in the US, London and also in Asia. The emergence of new technologies shouldn’t be a threat to newspaper publication which is not in developed countries but it is here in this part of the world because of the kind of society we have that’s not knowledge driven.
There’s need for restrategizing.
Kenneth Afor Jr. The future is bright and it lies in the hands of publishers
Silas O. Abayomi When I say newspapers are dead, yes, I mean, newspapers are dead.
As a former Assistant Professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, and now in another world, I have seen journalism and mass communication from two different worlds.
In journalism and mass communication schools in United States, emphasis is no longer on newspapers but more on social and convergence media.
Schools’ focus are on: video games, cinematography, blogging, media convergence (media hy-breed) or media synergy.
Multi media interaction, media complex, and many more.
Moreover, with several publishing platforms, photo creation and editing applications, newspapers may not be able to compete successfully in today’s media world.
I see newspapers’ fortunes declining more and more.
Print and download online shops will certainly give newspapers hard fight for their money.
Again, I see newspapers not surviving the onslaught from today’s media revolution.
Any contrary opinion welcome
LekanOtufodunrin Old revenue streams are not sustainable from what I know as a media manager.
Multi-media options as you noted is the way forward. Curriculum must change, business model must change.
Silas O. Abayomi I hope African media colleges, especially, Nigerian media schools should wake up.
Without delay old curricula of:
Newspapers production and management,
News writing,
Editorial/op-ed writings
News layout and esthetic
News segmentation etc…
should give a way to new topics.
Blogging,
Media Complex
Media Convergence,
Multi media interaction & synergy
Video games
Cyberspace and security
Cyber media law
Managing social media
Social media evaluation.
Media interface
Etc….
OlumideIyanda Perhaps the same thing that happened to VHS and cassette players. Filmmaking and music didn’t die with VHS, BASF and Maxell. People simply moved on to DVD (which is now living on borrowed time) and online streaming among other options. Journalism won’t die. People will just find new ways to consume their news.
LekanOtufodunrin Exactly and we must know how to provide news on those platforms for a fee
OlumideIyanda Yes sir. The way my Nollywood people are doing with Netflix and Iroko
RotimiAtolagbe I think newspapers will continue to exist although in a manner not as exponential as before the advent of the internet. Advertisers still patronise the traditional printed newspapers as some people are still not yet totally carried away by the internet bug. As we see these days, most news papers have 2 copies: the printed version and the online version. The printed version usually contains more details than the online version and then newspaper houses still don’t provide and up-to-date archive therefore if you need for instance, the 1999 edition of a particular news paper as a researcher, you might need to use a vendor’s assistance. For these and so many other reasons, I believe newspapers still maintain some form of relevance.
Eniola Joseph OlukayodeOlatunji Am thinking about this seriously as an academician. Theological education does not allow a research on that now but am trying to put it forward to Seminaries that have Theological Communication. Its a new field of theology like Theology of labor. We could talk to institutions that runs Mass Communication to research into that. I told you am working on NEW MEDIA AND PREACHING:THE PENTECOSTAL APPRAISAL.
Am focusing on LIVE STREAMING. My investigations so far shows that newspaper journalism may be swallowed by social media and new media technology. It may affect even the broadcast media. There is a new device that could take picture and video but it is drone like and can be controlled with the palm of the hand. I wonder what Marshal McLuhan who propounded the theory of global village would have been thinking of now. What would media technology be like in 2030?
LekanOtufodunrin Communication in all spheres have changed and we need to learn to make use what new technology makes possible. Technology has disrupted traditional journalism and we need to master the new way of disseminating information. Will get back to you Sir
Joseph DejiFolutile Great for those who don’t face realities but are busy creating the realities they want to see
Michael Chika Umudu Very uncertain future, My Editor. But as the world evolves, one can’t really predict such future with certainty
Joe Agbro As new media is largely SOCIAL, newspapers that don’t want to die must go SOCIAL too
LekanOtufodunrin More detailed. Interactive. Engaging. Futuristic and more
LufemiLufemi No future for newspapers, but there is a future for news organisations and those in the core chain of its business – journalism, reporters, marketers etc… The future only for media organisations that are ready to adopt the new cultures we are faced with today as quick as possible — The redefinition of NEWS BIZ is total..From news gathering (Social media hangouts, Official Twitter pages of celebs/public office holders/Skype), News writing (Conversational) and News distribution (Social Media, Whatsapp, Newsletters); News format ( Not just text – videos, info-graphics)
Silas O. Abayomi LekanOtufodunrin, if you can serve as a link or facilitator, I may help develop courses and contents to be shared among mass communication faculty members in communication schools in Nigeria.
LekanOtufodunrin On the platform of Media Career Services which I Coordinate, I am willing to collate useful current curriculum from you and others. I am aware how difficult it is to get NUC to review curriculum. Notwithstanding we will share and facilitate sessions outside school system.
We need complimentary practical courses by media support organizations like the one we are advocating for
Emmanuel NnadozieOnwubiko newspaper will be newspaper even in another 100 years. internet can’t take that fact away.
Toni Icheku Like books, TV, Print journalism would still be there, though much diminished in influence. Journalism as in news gathering is evolving and utilizing new distribution channels – the social media. The really focused newspapers cops have all gone digital – publishing and distributing as the news breaks. Of course blogging is not journalism! Newspaper publishing has gone digital, it’s growing – consumers receive news on the phones, tablets, but of course. What is the future of journalism? Digital. Online. The newspaper will still be there, albeit diminished in influence, but then it is only a channel – the business of journalism still goes on!
Samuel O. Adeyemi Sir, the line between Journalism & Blogging is getting blurred by the day.
Toni Icheku No sir! A journalist may blog, for instance LekanOtufodurin may, cashing in on his expertise in journalism blog on journalism, and related fields. But is Linda Ikeji, millionaire blogger a journalist?
Silas O. Abayomi On social media alone, we have:
Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Google Search, Google Map, Google Business, Google communication, Google apps, LinkedIn, Pincrest, Tumblr, etc.
2) Cyberspace law: Libel/slander, copyright infringement, components of intellectual property: books, pictures, journals, music, songs, artwork, etc
3) Cyber Business and associated laws
4) Cyberspace Security
5) Cyberspace, satellites, and interplanetary objects
6)Territorial airspace, international airspace.
7) Multi national and trans national media organizations; similarities and differences, laws guiding their operations.
WareesSolanke We need not be too emphatic on newspapers. Newspapers are just platforms, and all platforms evolve evolve with the society. In any case, it is is not only newspapers that face such dilemma. The book industry. Do social media and ebooks totally eclipse the necessity for hard copies? Are we not publishing research in print? What new media technologies have simply done is to engender total journalism/media professionalism. It also leads to niche. So, new media still require that all be exposed to the total skills. If we are to say newspapers are in crisis, it will not be just newspapers but broadcasting as well because just anybody can do podcast. Just anybody can webcast, just anybody can audio and videostream. Just anybody can produce and upload content. The real issue is not the medium again. Content is the king. The audience is the driver. So media theories are also being challenged. That is why the media convergence is the most appropriate usage. So media training and professionalism, media investment and management must take multitasking and multi skills as perquisites relevance and sustainability!
AdegboyegaKehinde The media is change…tech is disrupting everything..Its now a two way communication… Newspapers like any other mass media is being disrupted by the advent of new media…we don’t need a review of NUC curriculum to review to what we teach new generation journalist or retrain practising or veterans… The news media houses and training organizations must reinvent itself. Though the values of journalism are still the same…truth, fairness and objectivity
WareesSolanke I don’t see disruption, but motivation, competition and elevation
Tony ItaEtim The journalists of today and tomorrow must have the mindsets of entrepreneurs
MadunaguEmeka We give too much credit to the new media. Is it because of Google that is the biggest pilferer of intellectual content? Google steals your content and gets you to commit to an inordinate 70-30 share in their favour. Do Facebook, Twitter and the rest enhance content? No. So, the Nigerian media needs to raise its game and work put a better model for itself. We can’t continue to depend on these so-called big names that don’t add value to all the work we do.
LekanOtufodunrin We have a choice not to use these tools and platforms but can we? We keep perfecting our content creation skills and decides what works for us in terms of tools for information dissemination
MadunaguEmeka I hope we can get to the point where we rank with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. SeunOsewa is doing a great job with Nairaland. He needs encouragement, especially for being able to stand his ground against those chaps. Can any Nigerian newspaper attempt to create its own platform, sidestepping these chaps?
silas O. Abayomi WareesSolanke, you’re right, “news is the king, newspapers the platform” now we are saying that platform is old, obsolete, and needs to change. At a time, radio was the only source of news in some communities, later black and white television joined, soon Tv outplayed Radio.
But today these two electronic media have changed roles.
Radio has become a major outlet for music-just name it.
Television has become outlet for soap opera, CC platform and other forms of entertainment.
While social media has taken over the news source.
Remember those four attributes of mass media: large and different audience, feedback (delay), heterogeneous audience, common message, and unknown audience.
It may interest you to know, that social media has technically changed or modified theses features there by down playing newspapers.
Warees, remember in journalism class, you were told one-way traffic, until you get a feedback.
Could you see the wizardry of social media with immediate feedback?
Do I need a newspaper or magazine when I can do everything within minutes on Facebook, Twitter Google, Pincrest, LinkedIn, Tumblr?
Second, old paradigm tells you don’t know your audience, it’s no more so, today, I know those who will respond to my poetry as far as India, Australia, Europe, North America on certain platform immediately; I know those who will respond at their time; I know those that won’t respond at all.
Warees has social media not defeated newspapers on what you don’t know your about your audience?
On another front, you can easily segment your audience, considering a platform you’re using. If you are on music platform, you meet the teenagers, if you’re on teaching platform, you meet teachers, on medical platform, you meet medical professionals.
The lists go on.
All these developments have really changed the news and platforms news is reported.
Any contrary opinion? Please, share with me. Greetings
LekanOtufodunrin All correct my brother. Radio used to be Ero a soromagbesi. Now the esi is instant, thanks to phone and social media.
TaiwoObe noted at a recent media session, journalism is no more only about writing, but engaging your audience, starting conversations asking critical questions that don’t end on the newspaper.
AkatakpoAwinimu Frank NEWS IS NEWS.HARD COPY PRINTED NEWSPAPER REMAINS DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE ANYWHERE THAN SOCIAL AND VISUAL OF TELEVISION PRODUCTION.THEREFORE NEWSPAPER IS MOST VITAL TO ALL.
JideOyegunle Regular patronage, as low as it is today, may still give room to the existence of Newspapers. The fact that the people have imbibed the spirit of reading their favourite columnists and new ones may grow. Archival considerations may take greater grounds as against electronics devices.
Angela Agoawike Newspapers maybe going through tough times now, but I really do think that they would comeback, they would endure. There is a quality to the printed word and for newspaper, the painstaking effort/thoroughness in cross-checking facts to get out an edition still make them authentic and trustworthy to a large extent
WareesSolanke These are the essentials of any serious media platform. I want to listen to documentaries, watch programmes, access social media that offer this cocktails. Really, the fundamental thing is the training of media professionals to handle multiplatform or be multi skilled. Media field is fluid, diverse and dynamic. Oh! This is not even just about the media. Rather, the society and its technologies. Was there not a stone age or an iron age or the technology age. Communication exist in all of these ages and evolve according to the needs and complexity.
BanjiAdisa You are right, Angela. Power of the printed word will still make them relevant, no matter how limited in scope.
Angela, hi. Quite an age!
Paul Odenyi Newspapers will bounce back. Social media has shown it is like a gossip page. I believe what am saying
WareesSolanke Today, the discipline of communication does not recognize boundary. So we should not be talking about obsolescence of newspapers but of revolutionizing and converging media and communication platforms. we should be asking, is communication serving a catalytic purpose? Is it inspiring change, is it developing and connecting the world? In those days, if there is a crisis in Lagos today, the production process and logistics of delivering the news to Kano or Maiduguri audience creates a lag of minimum of 48 hours. If we are concerned about the fate of newspapers, we should also ask about other human disciplines and endeavours that innovations and technologies have significantly impacted. Do we then agonize over e-money or banking or telemedicine? What is important is purpose, service delivery and impact. What the new media will not do is replacing our senses but it will us make us to use them in more and faster ways. All the same, we must be conscious of using both our senses and the media positively. That is why we talk more of media and information literacy, which is not just for media professionals. It is universal.
LekanOtufodunrin Very true. New media will not replace our senses . Thanks s for your deep insights
ChinazaekpereSunnyBlac They do have a future. But there must be an interface between newspapers and new media / social media platforms. This was one of the topics we discussed in our Master’s class in Unilag. Each must compliment the other. There is an obvious downside where the money coming from sales of newspapers will dwindle while you have more unique visitors to websites, and social media platforms. Both must work hand in gloves to ensure that maximum income is brought into the company. I think Nation is doing something like that now. When you read newspaper and get to a point, they refer you to the link of their website. On the flipside, the newspaper has the complete news stories while the web portal and social media pages have an abridged version. They must work today for the future of newspapers to be secured.
LekanOtufodunrin Unfortunately the competition is so stiff from online only platforms that routine reports cannot wait for the print editions.
ChinazaekpereSunnyBlac Yes… Editor. Like one earlier said, we cant ignore convergence of both. Online reports can be short …while the newspaper reports longer. ..and like i mentioned in my earlier report some reports in newspapers can be cut short with links directing readers to web platforms
Olumide Michael Akinola Most people don’t read prints anymore, for instance right we are on social media….
YanjuUwala Sir, no matter what traditional media will still stand, just that they won’t be much relevant in the society…now if newspaper goes into extinction, what will our old men (who are not updated with social Media) use in getting news stories? Therefore, their will still be presence of newspapers in the society. #IRise
WareesSolanke All these stuff or distinctions about traditional or social or mass media should not detract from the role of communication in the society.
AdeyemiAdebiyi In addition to Solankes response, it’s only in Africa that the social media have taken tradition to dustbin. The west will continue to read and write and do more research to change the world. There is possibility of computer techs going viral, and incurable
heophilusAbbah We are quite apprehensive because of the domineering and ubiquitous outlook of the new media. But print editions still pay all the bills. We need to use the social media to publicize our contents, but we should not hand over our contents to Google. I align with EmekaMadunagu. The Mail & Guardian of South Africa has a website where it publishes breaking news on a daily basis but hold back other exclusive stories for four days until the print editions are sold out before uploading them on their website. We are labouring for Google, feed it with our sweats, so that it grows obese while we starve to our bones. Let’s have a rethink, journalists.
Sola Charles Newspaper industry has a future because it fulfils a need new media cannot. In several ways both are complementary, however the newspaper industry must reinvent itself.
WareesSolanke An interesting discourse so far. The main issue is interrogating the role of the Media, regardless of the genre. Whoever cares can examine this from Harold Lasswell perspective, or from the Uses and Gratification theory perspective. While satisfying all the roles or the needs of media, media professionals and consumers will always factor in things like speed, access, convenience, cost efficiency, reach, feedback and engagement, impact, freedom and even privacy or anonymity. Any genre that assure these will thrive. This is the training that investors and professionals must have and see how they can achieve convergence or use one to sustain the other. In the e- or digital age, technology will not entirely displace tradition. But it will affect the way we appreciate it. Food will remain food whether it is cooked by firewood, microwave, kerosene stove or gas cooker
