‘To be, or not to be’

The grandeur of a newspaper enjoyed with a piping cup of coffee, while the golden rays of the rising sun stream into verandas and Juliet balconies, is fast becoming a thing of the past. The print media, once venerated as the fourth estate—the press, is now struggling hard just to survive the fierce competition from digital media, the gamechanger of mass media that the 21st century brought along. The boom in IT, which unfolded through the geometric progression in Internet users, PCs, smart cell phones, and tablets, made printed matter obsolete as speed began to define ‘news’ rather than content and reliability. Apparently, the ‘screen’ has replaced paper. The reduction in circulation has directly hit the primary source of revenue for newspapers as the advertising business shrunk unprecedentedly. Fitzgerald, Mark observed in Editor & Publisher (March 18, 2009) that in the US, free services like Craigslist have decimated 70 per cent of classified advertising revenue. The state of print media today is caught in Macbeth’s predicament: “to be or not to be.”

The digital ‘deluge’ has almost swept away the relevance of traditional print media in most parts of the world. According to The Washington Post (November 30, 2021), about 2,200, a quarter of American local print newspapers, closed between 2005 and 2021 while from 2008 to 2020, the number of American newspaper journalists fell by more than half. In 2020, out of the 3,000-plus counties in the US, half had only one local print newspaper, while a third had a daily newspaper. More than 200 counties with no newspaper at all turned into ‘news deserts.’ The story is more or less similar in the UK and Europe as well.

The Associated Press reported on February 23, 2009, that large newspaper chains filing for bankruptcy included the Tribune Company, the Journal Register Company, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, Sun-Times Media Group etc. The deterioration of the US newspaper market led to the introduction of a bill in the Senate for restructuring print media houses as non-profit companies to avail themselves of an array of tax breaks. A study by Haozhe Bai, et al., in ICHESS 2021 (www.atlantis-press.com) shows that since 2015, the prospects of print media in China have been on the decline, as four newspapers closed in 2015, ten in 2016, six in 2017, 19 in 2018, and 20 in 2019, including the popular Beijing Morning Post. The national newsprint production in China fell by 14.4 per cent in 2019 compared to 2018.

Is print media, especially newspapers, still relevant in this digital era? The answer is certainly affirmative, for print media has an irreplaceable role in mass media with regard to intellectual honesty and physical outreach to millions of people, especially focusing on public-related local news. Newspapers, standardising the flow of information across different geographical areas, not only communicate with people but also groom them as responsible citizens with scientific temper and rationality. The decline in newspapers, according to Hopkins, Daniel J (The Increasingly United States: How and Why American Political Behaviour Nationalised, 2018), means a decline in civic engagement of citizens, increase in government waste, and increase in political polarisation.

While digital media revolutionised the narrative of mass media, its embarrassing side effect has been a new wave called 'citizen journalism,' mainly urban-centric, thriving in blogs, social media sites, podcasts, webcasts, and emails, not to mention the maddening torrential posts in ‘WhatsApp University.’ Absent gatekeeping by professional editors, it has become an inexpensive and convenient avenue for disseminating fake news, half-baked opinions, and sectarian views to the detriment of social harmony and the collective good. Secondly, issues like long exposure to screens involving health hazards and payment for access to news and knowledge on certain sites have made online media far from reader-friendly, not to mention the swarm of ads distracting the reader. Putting it in a lighter vein, digital media can be compared to a pageantry of attractive fast foods, and print media to a sumptuous and healthy home meal.

Print media across the world has, apparently, remodelled its business practices to survive the competition from its digital counterpart. In place of confrontation, a collaborative approach is adopted as most newspapers go online in partnership with digital forums to generate traffic, which would be otherwise expensive through traditional ways. The Economist, after a detailed study in the UK and the USA, made two key decisions: prioritising awareness-driving, high-impact digital media and adding Snapchat to the media plan to cater to the youth. Newspapers also began using digital technologies, seeing them as opportunities. While some e-newspapers adopted a system of both subscriptions and payments for stories, others embraced the Internet, trying to cash in on their brand value. Nevertheless, the returns are nowhere near the earlier print income from subscriptions and ads.

The Indian story of print media is one of a sustained journey alongside digital media, since the digital divide in the country, affordability of smartphones and devices, network disruptions, and inadequate digital literacy happen to be a blessing in disguise. Moreover, it enjoys state patronage in multiple ways, including land allocation at nominal prices for media houses and for housing journalists in many states. According to Statista, India is the largest market for the industry, with over 1,46,000 newspapers and periodicals as of 2023, amounting to a total circulation revenue of Rs 306 billion between 2014 and 2022. However, the party seems to be over since a remarkable decline in readership is seen over the years. For example, the Indian Readership Survey shows that while Hindustan’s average issue readership fell by 21 per cent in 2019, Amar Ujala’s dropped by 4.8 per cent, Malayala Manorama’s by eight per cent, Rajasthan Patrika’s by 10 per cent, and Eenadu’s by 21 per cent. While DCHL shut down several editions of Deccan Herald and Asian Age to stay in business, DNA closed the print edition, resulting in layoffs of a substantial number of journalists. These are only illustrations of a crisis the Indian print media is already in, and perhaps it’s only a matter of time before it succumbs to the headwinds of digital disruption.

Print media is not just a business in news but a responsible institution of public good when most digital media is still struggling for credibility. Newspapers are an inseparable part of governance, for they exercise substantial control over the delivery mechanism to ensure accountability to the public. The daily newspapers have become an integral part of our life so much so that while they provide us with information and knowledge, they also have multipurpose uses, from packaging wrappers to a poor man’s tissue paper. Even as the media houses are trying new hybrid business models to sustain the business, they also need liberal state support, at least by way of lowering the import duty on newsprint. Last but not the least is the need for a mechanism to effectively address the unfettered freedom in digital forums and social media sites.

The writer is a former Addl. Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh. Views expressed are personal