It seems hopeless. How can the newspaper industry survive the internet? On the one hand, newspapers are expected to supply their content free on the web. On the other hand, the thing that make them money the most - advertisement - is being lost to the tons of classified sites (where some are also free). And display advertsing is close behind. Meanwhile, there is the blog terror: people are getting their understanding of the world from random people riffling in their underwear, rather than professional journalists with standards and passports (ouch!)

Ten years ago, it was a challenge for websites to get people to spend time for pleasure in front of a computer screen. Now the problem is to get people under 50 or so to pick up a newspaper. Damp or encased in plastic bags, and planted in the bush outside where it's cold, full of news that is cold too because it has been sitting there for hours, the home-delivered newspaper is an archaic object. Who needs it? You can sit down and enjoy that same newspaper or any other paper in the world. Or you can skip the newspaper and go to some site that makes the news more entertaining or politically simpatico.

So are we doomed to get our news from some acned 12-year-old in his parents' basement recycling rumors from the internet echo chamber? Not necessarily. The fact that people won't pay for news on the internet isn't as devastating for the old medium as it seems. People don't pay for their news in traditional newspapers; they pay for the paper. So in theory, giving away the news without the paper looks like a good deal for newspapers, if they can keep the advertising.

Once you've rented an apartment online, you know that traditional newspaper classifieds, with their tiny type, have no future. But only slow-footedness has kept newspapers from dominating online classifieds. Technology can be bought, but the brand value of a local newspaper cannot (unless you buy the company ). Newspapers are not missing the blog boat. They are running for it like the last train out of Paris. Maybe it's too late, but if newspapers have missed this boat, it's their own fault. Newspaper on paper are on the way out. Whether newspaper companies are on the way out too depends. Some of them are going to find the answers. And some are going to fritter away the years quarreling about staff cuts.

9 Comments

by faruqy @ 28 Sep 2006 01:44 pm

the traditional paper-based newspaper are here to stay.. there's nothing like flipping through the pages in the morning!

by Datuk D @ 28 Sep 2006 01:45 pm

'UTUSAN MELAYU' The one and only 'Jawi' news paper in the WORLD is at the moment in the brink of extinction... how sad.. i even used to meet one chinese guy several years ago who are so fond of JAWI... well.. its going down and down.. as the globalization era approaches.. how sad

by Zalan @ 28 Sep 2006 05:13 pm

Isn't globalization a global killer to those unfit enough to survive? Even a nation would face the same fate if it keeps ignoring the consequences of globalization. And where do WE stand in this whole scenario?

But really lah Faruq, nothing beats flipping through the pages... e-books fail to take me away from that....yet

by faruqy @ 29 Sep 2006 11:23 am

ok lan lepas ni citer pasal globalization plak...

by Stone @ 02 Oct 2006 04:55 pm

u can't bring the e-book to the toilet too :P

by budakyangbest @ 03 Oct 2006 07:55 am

U can't bungkus nasi lemak with e-book too...

by Zalan @ 03 Oct 2006 08:09 am

Globalization kene study betul-betul dulu, nanti org ckp "you don't have a clue do you", segan le

e-book cannot bungkus nasi lemak and bring to the toilet...betul la!

by faruqy @ 03 Oct 2006 10:12 am

haha so that's it then. we've all agreed that paper-based newspapers are much better than their digital counterparts...

by zura @ 04 Jun 2008 12:26 pm

globalization is here to stay, yes u are right and the above issue is one of the many significant effects. Hence, we have to prepare in advanced to make these effects as positive challenges rather than suicidal