Political India: Engaging America

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (May 27-29 2005) with the above title makes an interesting argument about what is now a well known phenomenon: Traditional media businesses are struggling in the face of the onslaught of digital media and burgeoning competition in the age of the information explosion. The main question that is asked regarding newspapers is, "Why should people buy a morning newspaper when they have already received much of the day's news by email, dissected reports from multiple sources on the internet, got instant updates on their mobile phones and absorbed even more details from television and radio?"

While this trend amongst the traditional readers of the newspaper is becoming a growing problem for newspapers in India, in Europe things have gotten much tighter for the Fourth Estate. As the WSJ article suggests, however, the traditional media in this part of the world has responded using a variety of strategies, including:

1. Launching easier-to-read tabloid formats
2. Shifting more towards analysis than straight news
3. Embracing some of the very technological developments that have threatened their readership/circulation

Let us examine each in a little more detail.

Shrink the paper

As the article argues, one of the most noticeable changes is that many of the newspapers are shrinking. Papers such as the Times and the Independent in the UK and Die Welt in Germany have launched tabloid versions (again, a reference to size not content) so as to reach younger readers and commuters (note here the earlier references, in this blog, to free newspapers sustained by ads alone, which are given to daily commuters in public transport systems across Europe). However some experts argue that although many of the taboid editions have been very successful, their introduction will merely buy a few years of respite rather than arrest the long-term circulation decline. The real problem, the WSJ argues, is that the 'age effect' is becoming a generational effect, where 'age effect' refers to the following phenomenon: People grow up reading their parents' newspaper, then stop reading in their twenties, but return to newspapers when they are older- and often end up reading the same paper their parents did. Now, however, young people appear o be growing up with other alternatives to the newspaper and they are not returning. This makes it imperative that traditional newspapers must respond to changes in reader preferences in the younger generation.

News versus analysis

Again, as an example set by the Independent in the UK, one USP of newspapers is that they are possibly better positioned to offer much more than news, i.e. in-depth analysis of breaking and other stories. That is, the reader receives each morning a document that is more a 'viewspaper' than a mere newspaper. Of course, as the WSJ points out, this challenges some traditional notions of separation of news from analysis, but it is inevitable that such notions themselves need to evolve as the world in which they are applied does. As one expert argues, "The theory of separating facts from opinion was a very good practice, but the problem with readers today is that they are overwhelmed by news and information... The goal of a newspaper is not to give a thousand pieces of news bit to say, 'You've seen all this information' and now we say to you, 'Here are the four important pieces of news today, and here's what they mean'".

Blogs (Of course, I love this idea!)

Blogs and a new technological innovation, RSS feeds (which is available even on the Political India blog), are cutting edge digital tools that make news stories read by viewers more instantaneous, detailed and relevant to their needs. In addition, some blogs permit reader interface, and so feedback and opinion are given more importance. As the article explains, in France Le Monde has taken the blogging concept a step further- besides offering blogs by journalists, it also has some written by experts in a particular field. For example, "in advance of the French referendum on the EU's proposed constitution, the Le Monde site has hosted a blog by a member of the European Parliament and a law professor. Then on top of that, there are blogs written by regular readers".

While tabloidisation and other relatively dramatic changes are perhaps possible in the future in India, for example for The Hindu (as it faces the prospect of increasing competition in its home market), there is nothing preventing the leading English dailies from embracing the vast benefits afforded by the latest technology associated with the internet. In fact, in the case of The Hindu, a newspaper based on authenticity, credibility, expertise and seriousness, the idea of providing even more analysis of news would only srengthen its existing USP. Similarly most readers would agree that there is untapped potential for this worthy daily and several others in India, in terms of an improved web presence, perhaps incorporating RSS feeds as well as blogs. The future of traditional print media in India is uncertain, but it is also one that is filled with promise for the bold and the wise.