I would dearly love to be able to archive all the old content from the Garment and Citizen but it’s impossible.
First of all I have no way of retrieving it and second of all the bandwith I would require to carry ten years worth of articles would be frightening. It’s a sad loss but some of it does survive on other sites that have republished the content. I have not republished this as I wanted to do all or nothing.
So I’ve decided to look at the state and fate of the newspaper industry. Does it have a future? Is the paid model or the free model the way to go?
There are a lot of challenges facing newspapers. The green movement may attack the unnecessary use of paper in newspapers. You have free content on the internet and social sites that allow news go viral before a newspaper is even in print. Then there are the plethora of twenty hour news channels available to everyone.
I don’t think the TV channels are too much of an issue. A newspaper can give more commentary and insight to an event than a tv news report. Local papers can also focus on very local events that a TV station can’t.
The real challenge comes from the internet. News is predominantly free and fast moving. It could be argued that newspapers are reporting old news were the internet gives you immediate news and immediate feedback from the social media side. This is a huge issue. To combat that papers have to keep improving their “point of view” reporting rather than a mere this is what happened reporting we sometimes see. People are drawn to opinions and that is part of the key. More opinions will mean more readers and more revenue.
Should newspapers be free? I think the current generation are happy to pay for newspapers despite the internet. However in fifteen years that may not be the case as the new generation are used to consuming all their information online and it’s usually free. Others will will want a free online business as well as free content. I think a lot will depend how the news sites online go, some are moving over top paid content especially with the advent of the ipad. If online content becomes paid then I think newspapers have a chance.
My biggest concern is the next generation. For me opening a physical newspaper is a huge thrill, a treat even. The next generation will be used to using mobile devices like phones to consume content. they are used to consuming and commenting quickly. Social media allows people to share frighteningly quickly and news is now close to instanteneous. I just don’t see that generation needing a physical paper.
Perhaps the next generation of community newspapers will be internet based. They then could be free as overheads would be lower and advertising rates would again be lower. They could still provide the local content and great comment features it will just be consumed in a different way.