Print media in crisis

By Shanker Man Singh

Newspapers are disappearing like paper. Yet, the news media are alive and well. Journalism is there, but they are serving other purposes.

April 30, 2024 was a sad day for book readers. It was the end of an era. As of April 30, 2024, Reader’s Digest, UK, ceased publishing its print edition after 86 years. The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Eva Mackevic, announced on LinkedIn that the company was unable to withstand the financial pressures of the current magazine publishing landscape.

The May 2024 issue was the last to be published. Newsweek has been shutting down its print edition since 2013.

In the context of Nepal, Gorkhapatra earned a profit of about 19 crores in the last fiscal year. In 2019 B.S., it was established with the aim of publishing newspapers and now with a total of 459 employees and officers with a capital of about 30 million rupees, an issued capital of 25 million and a paid-up capital of 115 million rupees.

Although there is no such problem in government institutions, there is no doubt that revenue is decreasing. If many weeklies are closed, it feels like the daily newspapers are still running.

What is the reality?

This may be the subject of research. Technology, especially digital technology and the Internet, has brought about a radical change in the field of communication, and none more significant than print.

This has led to a huge decline in print newspapers and magazines as these publications can now be sold as subscriptions on the Internet. This means lower costs for publishers in printing savings and instant and user-friendly access by their customers on all types of personal devices, from iPhones to laptops.

It is said that people are getting “free” information, both good and mainly bad, online and through social media, and expect it to continue to be “free.”

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this is just a slow process of losing journalists and media jobs and reducing profits for owners. That is what every other business loses: costs exceed revenue.

Every newspaper faces increasing costs for paper (printing, of which paper is the most important factor), people (staff), and what we call delivery (a more accurate term would be “distribution”), but the way that those “paper, people, and delivery” do it costs more.

It is also true that almost every newspaper faces competition for revenue, not just from other newspapers, but also from other forms of media, including the Internet.

The line between being profitable and not being profitable is a function of how a newspaper deals with those two factors, just like any other business.

The better a newspaper does, the more readers it will have, because a local newspaper with trained reporters and an unbiased editorial staff will always be more trustworthy than a local Facebook group or a big city newspaper an hour away.

Just as a great restaurant serves food with fresh ingredients and talented cooks, a newspaper provides its readers with relevant and meaningful reliable, complete information.

The world’s first newspaper was published in 1609 in France in the German language. Then newspapers were published in Germany, America, Britain, and other countries.

By the eighteenth century, many newspapers were published in Europe and America. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, newspapers not only became the main means of information, education, and awareness, but for two hundred years in the four hundred-year history of newspapers, they were unrivalled. Until the invention of radio, newspapers were without competition.

Will newspapers disappear in the future?

Social media is beginning to have an impact on the news and entertainment industry, and some inside and outside the industry fear that newspapers will die out with the advent of new media and online journalism.

Some newspapers have closed, and journalists and other employees have been laid off. Amid fears of newspaper closures, some newspapers are rapidly adapting to the changes in the industry by using new editorial methods that will appeal to readers and advertisers. For some newspapers, this means dramatically shrinking the amount of text, averaging just a few characters per story, and larger images on the printed page.

While social media news and information content are ideal for a new generation of information consumers who want to read quickly on the go, it is no substitute for professional journalism that requires the depth and breadth of analysis to truly inform. Reading the news all the time on your phone or computer is worse than impractical. Besides, many readers would rather sit on the couch, on a bus or plane seat, with the traditional printed word folded in their lap. 

A change in newspaper editorial repackaging is expected that includes content that embodies the established values ​​of traditional journalism, but is designed to meet the demands and challenges of new media technologies that have dramatically changed the way information is presented and disseminated. In that case, newspapers will never die.

In the past, journalists were involved in information collection, processing and production. However, now the active role of journalists in these three levels has decreased. Journalists and media outlets are no longer the main source of information. They are getting all the media through social media. Education, health, entertainment, awareness and information that the common people had yesterday were transmitted through the media.

Today, they have started transmitting it through social media. Social media has become the main medium for transmitting their opinions and information.

Is it necessary to print newspapers in this digital age?

A large number of people check their mobile phones when they wake up. The dependence on mobile phones is so great that they feel disconnected without being able to use the internet. For some people, it is impossible not to read the newspaper in the morning.

Online newspaper subscriptions fulfill their desire to read newspapers as well as read newspapers.

During the daily drive to the office, reading newspapers is a great way for supervisors to avoid discussions with people. Many people do not want to carry paper-based newspapers to their offices.

When searching for news on mobile phones, people tend to think that someone is buying or not wanting to invade their personal space.

As the use of mobile phones increases day by day, people are dependent on them for correspondence, entertainment and information.

Profitable people think of ways to get discounts on their money and time. Paperback newspapers are expensive compared to computerized newspaper subscriptions.

In a country like Nepal, the main source of operation of mass media is advertising. Newspapers are driven by advertising rather than sales. However, the fact that a large part of advertising is going directly to social media is a warning sign.

Leaders, employees and ordinary people in high positions can directly make five thousand friends on Facebook. They can have millions of followers on Twitter. Content disseminated by people in high positions has become a source of news.

This shows that the tweet of a person with more followers can be more powerful than a powerful newspaper. The cement industry and liquid beverage (alcoholic) advertisements were the sources of income for Nepali media.

The advertisements that were most visible in newspapers, television and online were for cement and alcoholic beverages (alcohol).

Beverages are considered harmful to human health, but these advertisements were the lifeblood of the Nepali media industry.

Government offices have been carrying out public procurement activities using the powers granted by the Public Procurement Act-2063 and the Public Procurement Regulations (Ninth Amendment) 2079.

Bids, quotations, sealed invitations, proposals, and letters of intent have been published for public services, procurement and construction. As a provision in this act, 35-day, 21-day, 15-day and seven-day public notices have been published in international, national and local newspapers.

It can be said that this has helped the Nepali print media industry to some extent. After the decline in print advertising and sales, journalism has shifted towards digital media.

As a result, the number of digital news portals has skyrocketed. The number of digital media has increased in the last decade.

Digital media is also running on advertising. The subscription model has not worked in Nepal. Those who tried ‘paywalls’ do not seem to have succeeded.

The potential consequences of this decline are too serious to ignore. There is no such thing as free news, just as there is no such thing as a free lunch. Free online news is not truly free; it comes with hidden costs, such as algorithms – like those on social media – that prioritize sensational stories, promote misinformation and polarisation. ‘Brain rot’, named Oxford Word of the Year 2024, is defined as “a state of presumed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, seen as a result of excessive consumption of content (now especially online content) that is considered trivial or challenging.”