Are Newspapers Dying?

Predictions about the death of newspapers are premature according to Peter Christopher, Editor in Chief of Fairfax Community Newspapers in New South Wales.

Speaking at the recent Local Government Public Relations Association Conference in Sydney, Christopher put up a spirited defence of the role community newspapers play in Australia.

He argued that as economies become more globalised, communities are becoming “hyper-local”. Increasingly Australians are reaching out through community newspapers, events and even hyper- local blogs to connect with and understand the immediate world around us.

So the nature of news has not changed: we still want information on local events and issues. But the way that news is being delivered is certainly changing and the pace of distributing news has moved newspapers from marathon to sprint mode. This means the demand for content is insatiable and as Christopher colourfully put it, “the beast needs feeding”.

The practice for Australian newspapers to integrate print and on-line and use text, video and photography to cover important issues, is now firmly established. We are noticing this more and more and in one recent project we spent more time with on-line editors from major newspapers than with journalists working on print stories.

The pace of delivery and the demand for newspapers to have multi-media platforms will continue to grow. According to the 2008 edition of the Newsroom Barometer, an annual survey of more than 700 editors and senior news executives from 120 countries:

• 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm


• 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years


• 44% believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. 31% cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper


• 35% said training journalists in new media was the number one priority for investing in editorial quality

The implication for communicators is clear.

The journalist's job is getting tougher and that means ours will too. To maximize the chances of getting our issues and causes published, we must be ready to package up and present journalists with video, stills images and audio opportunities before they even ask.