Industry News

Newspapers Move Toward Era Of Paperless News

Mike Needs, Akron Beacon Journal Public Editor

We debate the news part of the newspaper endlessly. But what about the paper part of it?

As in, how soon will reading ink-on-dead-trees be as obsolete as playing vinyl record albums, turning your TV dial or dialing a telephone? In a digital age, do we really need paper?

Let's face it, the plunge in circulation numbers for newspapers is accelerating. At the same time, visits to newspaper Web sites skyrocket.

It doesn't take a math wizard to project the trend lines: One of these days, and it could be sooner than we think, the rough readership ratio of 80 percent print/20 percent online will be reversed.

Like most newspapers, the Beacon Journal has more readers today than ever, once you combine the online users with the print readers. Gloating ideologues who point to political differences for newspaper declines conveniently ignore the healthy overall numbers.

The challenge is money. The competition for advertising dollars has never been stronger, more widespread or more worrisome from a newspaper perspective.

It takes a lot of money for newspapers to watch government, monitor business and chronicle events for you, not to mention entertain you with sports, culture, arts and, yes, politics.

But it's exactly that "everything for everyone" newspaper model that's so difficult to sustain financially. In the past, it was OK that you skipped over parts of the paper because advertisers eventually found you anyway.

Today, though, with numerous niche information sources -- online, broadcast and print -- you can be highly selective with your reading/viewing investment. More importantly, advertisers can target their messages to highly desirable, intensely interested audiences.

It's an efficiency factor difficult for the traditional mass media to match.

In addition, that mega-million-pound gorilla called Google can put advertising messages, even local ones, in front of you quite effectively, all without being burdened with the expense of news gathering.

These are tough times for newspaper companies. Not that they're sitting on their ink-stained thumbs, though.

Microsoft and the New York Times recently unveiled the Times Reader, an Internet tool that enables Web sites to display news similar to newspapers. For example, you won't scroll, you will click to electronically turn pages. Hyphenated and justified text will be viewed in columns.

It's being touted as the best of both worlds: the immediacy and interactivity of online married to the portability and presentation of newspapers.

Presumably, the Times Reader will be best viewed on electronic tablets the size of a legal pad, untethered to computer connections. Others see a future in digital newsprint -- about the size and thickness of a newspaper page -- that can display constantly updated information.

When I asked a group of newspaper readers what they thought, most shuddered at the prospect of their morning cup of coffee without their printed newspaper. For them, using a digital contraption to peruse the news removes the enjoyment inherent in turning the page.

"There is nothing better than a Sunday morning with a thick paper with lots of inserts/ads/stuff, the best freshest pastries in Akron from Crest Bakery, hot steaming chocolate or tea after Mass, and reading a newspaper," said Janice Sturkey of Akron.

"I love the tactility of a newspaper, the sound of turning pages, folding a page to do a crossword puzzle," said John Paparella of Norton. "Newspapers represent some nostalgia for me. Can't explain it, they just do."

From Patrick (Paddy) Taylor of Akron: "This culture of everything NOW, AND QUICK, is the result of a fast-pace society that has no flowers to smell, no relaxation to just absorb what truly is going on nearby or in the world of news and how it affects us all."

Joy Thompson of Akron asks, "Has anyone done a study on what happens to the psyche of those who are always attached to a piece of electronics? Is it only old folks like me who see the value of leisure, who need the rest sign on a sheet of music? You can't sing if you don't breathe."

However, even the "old folks" who smell the flowers and stop to breathe admit they have adapted to some of today's techno gadgets. Their e-mails reflect the inevitable, the inescapable march of progress.

Five years ago, this information revolution was merely a bump on the distant horizon for most people. Can we imagine five years from now?

That's why newspapers, including the Beacon Journal, must explore a future with less and less reliance on paper.

It's the only way to keep the news in front of you.


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