Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Future of Newspapers: 66 Major Trends
byThe newspaper business is undergoing rapid change and a PowerPoint presentation from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), underscores 66 major media-related trends that are having an impact on all media—including newspapers. Aaron Wall at WebProNews does a nice job of summarizing these trends into a few key categories.
One of the interesting trends highlighted in the PowerPoint presentation was Intelligent Paper (slide 16). As the presentation states, “Paper is starting to talk, sound and blink.”
Most traditional media of old was defined by the medium through which communication took places: Newspapers (paper), Radio (radio waves), Television (encoded radio waves). Today, most news media is a mash-up of several technologies. The dividing line between different types of media grows more obscure. The web version of newspapers, which for most daily newspapers is the only portion of their business that is growing, can now feature videos, podcasts, and rich-media advertising with sound and motion. Online newspapers are becoming more like other web-based news sites such as CNN.com and Foxnews.com.
When the WAN report refers to Intelligent Paper, the implication is that if the newspaper business is hoping for long-term success, newspapers must continue to redefine what it means to “print” the paper.
