Results matching “japan internet”

The Kitanippon Shimbun has closed its evening edition and will now publish a morning edition only, NSK News Bulletin reports.

Plans are in place to redesign its morning edition, including moving some content from the defunct evening edition to the morning one. The website will also get a makeover, adding more content and featuring the latest news ahead of the print edition.

Kotaro Akiyama, president of Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second-largest newspaper, reassured the Financial Times that Japanese newspapers are sitting pretty and will not experience a decline like their European and North American counterparts. 

Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos announced on Tuesday that the Kindle 2 would drop $40 in price from $299 to $259 in response to growing competition in the e-reader market. The decision comes amidst speculation that both Apple and Microsoft have plans to create their own devices and recent polls which have revealed that the current price point for e-readers is too high for the average consumer.

A new international Kindle that will allow users to buy books and newspapers wirelessly anywhere in the the world, will also be released on October 19 for $279, reports USA Today. Kindle users abroad previously needed a US Amazon based account and had to transfer their e-books from a computer via USB. "A book that may take two weeks to get shipped internationally in physical form can now be delivered in less than 60 seconds," Bezos told USA Today. The release is targeted at english-speaking expats and travellers and rivals the pricier iRex DR800SG ($399), previously the only e-reader to offer a global wireless network.

E-reader sales in the US have surpassed (albiet low) expectations, and Forrester Research, who previously predicted total sales would reach 2 million in May, has 'upped that projection by 50% to 3 million for 2009, with 30% of 2009 sales occuring in the holiday season of November and December.'

According to a new study conducted by Forrester Research, over the next few years around another 2.2 billion people will be connected to the Internet, representing an increase of 45%. Interestingly, by 2013, 43% of this figure will be located in Asia. Moreover, Africa and the Middle East, whilst currently totalling only 8% of the world's Internet users, will experience significant development in this period.

It is expected that Nigeria, Iran and Egypt will count as the greatest areas of development in the Africa-Middle East region. It will be interesting to see how the press of these nations, the nature of each obviously being inherently different, will develop with the proliferation of the Internet. The editor of Nigeria's Punch, for example, expressed the opinion that publishers must accept the inexorable rise of the Internet as a challenging opportunity for newspapers to develop and improve their services.

The Japan Times reports that Hawaii's only Japanese-language daily, Hawaii Hochi, is confronting many obstacles as it tries to makes it to its centennial year in 2012. Hawaii Hochi president Paul Yempuku admitted the paper is up against the "biggest crisis" of its 97-year existence.

Among the difficulties Hawaii Hochi faces is a drop in readership due to an aging population of immigrants and first-generation Japanese-Americans. The newspaper also must compete for its audience with the Internet. Furthermore, Hawaii Hochi's founding mission of combating the prejudices faced by Japanese-Americans is less relevant in today's society.

The International Journalism Festival took place in Perugia, Italy from April 1-5. The festival addressed the differences between old and new media and the necessity to integrate the two, and many other widely discussed issues affecting the media today, such as integrating print and web news in light of readers' migration online, the necessity to finance journalism as a watchdog, and hence the need to make readers pay for online news.

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As US newspaper groups declare bankruptcy and some fold due to the economic recession and web competition, the printed newspaper continues to thrive in Asia. The World Press Trends 2008 by World Association of Newspapers reports that eight of the world's top ten daily newspapers with the highest circulation are printed in Asia, and the largest newspaper markets are Japan, China, and India.

According to a Time article, some media expansion in Asia corresponds with the fall of dictators as readers appreciate a freer press devoid of government propaganda. For example, Indonesia has seen a tremendous rise in the number of newspapers after the deposition of President Suharto in 1998. Though state censorship still exists in China, a press revolution is in progress as the central government reduces state subsidies for newspapers, creating a free-market that forces editors to print stories that sell.

With many of the world's newspapers faced with plummeting circulation figures, the industry in Japan is somewhat of an anomaly.  The five big national dailies have only seen their readership slip by 3.2% in the past decade, a stark contrast to the parallel figure in the US, which sits at 15%.  Currently, it is thought that the high population of elderly people in Japan is keeping the readership figures up.

However, Japanese newspapers are not taking this situation for granted. "I am in a dying industry," said Kenichi Miyata, a senior editor and writer at the Asahi newspaper.  "Young people do not read newspapers, and our population is getting very old very rapidly."  Whilst elsewhere the survival of print seems very much focused on the innovation of individual publications, in Japan three of the big dailies are members of the Nikkei-Asahi-Yomiuri Internet Business Partnership, and have teamed up to create an iPhone application.  It is interesting to speculate on where the UK and US newspapers would be now, had they had the opportunity to create such alliances before crisis hit.

Source: ReadWriteWeb

Japan's public broadcaster NHK has announced the launch of a 24-hour news channel.  The first of its kind in the country NHK World TV will provide news in English that is focused on Asia and Japan, and will be available in 70 countries and regions via satellite, cable and the Internet.  The service will not however be available in Japan due to broadcasting laws.

NHK Vice President Yoshinori Imai has hopes that NHK World TV will "join the ranks of CNN International and BBC World Service" and hopes that it will "earn a reputation for strong coverage of Japan and Asia news."  The channel will run 30-minute news bulletins every hour, and also include documentaries and other features.  NHK World Service joins the likes of France 24 and Al Jazeera English, showing the diversifying of international news services away from US and UK based channels.

According to the Washington Post the Japanese newspaper industry is doing well for now, but doomed in the future because of its aging population and the fact that Japan's youth do not read newspapers.  In addition, Japan's population is declining; in 50 years the government estimates that Japan will have one-third the population of its 127 million today.

Although the end of newspapers in Japan is in sight, Japan's newspapers are doing very well despite all odds.  They have avoided large-scale layoffs and have retained readership figures. 

Yahoo News Japan reports it has now joined the likes of Wikipedia and Google's Knol in offering user-generated content in its "Editable related section", allowing other readers to suggest and edit material using their "expert knowledge", reports the European Journalism Centre.

The sources may be outside of Yahoo and may even be in other languages. However, Yahoo's influence in Japan implies that the majority of referenced content "is its own anyway".

The way in which Yahoo Japan differs from its US counterparts is that user editors have to apply for the non-paid position and take a test to distinguish the "sheep" from the "goats".

Japan's Yahoo only retains the name in common with US Yahoo.

Source: European Journalism Centre, Tech Radar

See also:

Yahoo! aims to be "number one" independent news source
Opinion: Is Google closer to becoming a media company after releasing Knol
Knol could learn from predecessors

In an event appropriately titled the 1st Japan-China-South Korea Editors' Seminar, 41 senior editors and journalists from Japan, China and South Korea, met in Seoul for the first of such a gathering.

The event provided a forum for discussions on the Internet, the role of the media, and coverage of key issues, including free trade. The meetings theme was, "Developing New Collaborative Relations in Pursuit Of Deeper Mutual Understanding Among Media Circles."

Jin Dong-guang, chief of Korean-language broadcasting at state-owned China Radio International (CRI), noted that due to growing competition with U.S. and European media, it was crucial for the three countries to strengthen their cooperation. "Specifically," reported Pressnet, "Jin called for a system to share information among media in the three countries and to promote joint projects in newsgathering and content production, as well as in other fields."

The new forum is to be held every two years, with the next meeting set for Tokyo in 2010.

Source: Pressnet

Oscar Westlund, doctoral student at the University of Gothenburg spoke about the dream of mobile news and if it will go beyond news addicts at the 15th World Editors Forum.

Oscar Westlund does research about media usage in Sweden. In his studies, he has found that although many Swedes own mobile phones with internet access and news functions, few actually use their phones for news. 86 percent of the Swedes make mobile phone calls every week but only 6 percent use their mobile for news at least once a week.
   Compared with Japan where the use of mobile media is high, the specific use of news with the mobile is actually similar to that in Sweden. A study in Japan asking the Japanese if they "often" use the mobile for news showed that 12 percent did in 2006 and 13 percent did in 2007.
    Westlund admitted that one of the reasons that Swedes don't use mobile news is that the prices for internet access on mobiles can be high. But more important to his studies is that most of the Swedes don't actually want to access news through their mobiles. People mostly use their mobiles for interpersonal communications. Some feel that using mobiles for news would add an element of stress to their lives. In fact, those that most use their mobiles for news are people aged 30-39 years. Westlund says that the use of mobile news services is linked to four types of characteristics; lifestyle, technology, socio-demographic factors and news habits. Users of mobile news look for mobiles with user friendliness, usability, transfer speed and battery life.
    All in all, Westlund concluded through his studies that mobile news will not be the future of news for the large majority of the population. But as people's needs are changing all the time it is very difficult to draw conclusions about the future.

The free business daily paper City AM in London is launching Quick Response (QR) technology, which enables readers to download financial news on their mobile phones.

When a picture of a QR code is taken from a mobile phone, the QR code provides a link to the mobile Internet referring to specific news pages.

City AM claims to be the first newspaper in the UK to make us of QR technology.

These codes have already been extensively used in Japan and China. In France, several magazines successfully tried using the smart barcodes last summer.

City AM already provides a 'mobizine', a mobile-friendly format for its news service.

Source: Brand Republic

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with  Jonathan Landman, deputy Managing Editor of The New York Times in the US.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

1 -      How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We're a news and information company, not just a newspaper or print company. We own newspapers, obviously, and they remain extremely important. But we also own Web sites, not only www.nytimes.com but also www.about.com and www.boston.com and others. The Web sites are growing smartly. They are also contributing a steadily increasing share of the company's revenue -- 11 percent at the end of 2007.

 2 -    At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I doubt it. Big U.S. papers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal still have a lot of loyal readers who like the feel and experience of a newspaper. I imagine newspapers will survive until the perfect electronic substitute comes along and combines the portability and readability of a newspaper with the connectivity and multimedia capabilities of the Web.
When will that happen? Place your bets.
 
3 -     In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Both. Digital journalism combines brand-new things with time-tested old ones. The most pronounced change is in the realm of reader interaction -- technology has made it possible for journalists, outside experts and other readers to talk to each other, to collaborate on news-gathering and analysis, to fact-check and to distribute journalism in new ways. It has pulled the newspaper package apart, allowing people to acquire and consume their journalism one piece at a time or to customize it to fit their needs. It has altered the journalist's relationship with sources and introduced new visual forms like the interactive graphic. It has picked up the journalistic pace.

Those are big changes. Still, the things that haven't changed are just as important as the things that have. Good journalists must still know their subjects. Ambitious and resourceful reporting are as essential to good news video as they are to good news writing. News judgment -- shorthand for a complicated, unscientific and very human professional assessment of what's most important, interesting, surprising, funny, educational and otherwise worth knowing about -- retains its value.

4 -       Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

An opportunity. See above. For us, figuring out how to mobilize our sophisticated, curious and well-informed audience in constructive ways is both a challenge and a high priority.
 
5 -       Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

There's no doubt that financial pressures have driven many newspapers to cut back on investigative work. But that is distinctly not the case at The New York Times. Here are (also here, here, here and here) just a few important examples to illustrate the point.

The decline of investigative reporting at newspapers can't be a plus for democracy. On the other hand, the Internet has made public records and other documents much easier to find, expose and examine. It has made it easier for fine independent journalists like Joshua Micah Marshall to find an audience for excellent investigative work that would otherwise not gain wide public attention. And it has made it easier for whistleblowers and others to find and reinforce each other.
 
In those ways it has expanded opportunities for professional journalists to work with other people to expose wrongdoing and explore important issues. I'd say this form of collaborative investigative journalism is still young and has much potential.

6 -       Can journalism survive newspapers? (And maybe can newspapers survive journalism?)

Commentators and prognosticators have been predicting the imminent demise of newspapers for at least 15 years. A famous example: In 1993 in Wired Magazine, Michael Crichton wrote: "To my mind, it is likely that what we now understand as the mass media will be gone within 10 years. Vanished, without a trace." The New York Times, he said, will be the GM or IBM of the 1990's, "the next great American institution to find itself obsolete and outdated while obstinately refusing to change."

Nine years later, the media critic of Slate, Jack Shafer, noted that Crichton had been wrong and took a stab at explaining why. His concluding paragraphs:
"As the wise man once said, if you're going to make predictions, make a lot of them. Folks will forget your misses and remember your hits. In that spirit, Crichton writes, 'Sooner or later a lot of people are going to say, "You know what? An editor is worth the money. Because time is money, and my time is wasted combing through this junk. I'll pay someone to do it." And it'll happen.'

"To my ears, though, that still sounds like the New York Times."


Stay tuned for more in our interview series: the next installment will feature Financial Times' Managing Editor Dan Bogler.

Cern, the particle physics center based in Geneva that created the web, has built "the grid," a replacement for the Internet that is 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, capable of downloading entire feature films in seconds and "sending the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds."

The grid may also have the capability to transmit holographic images, "allow instant online game with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call."

Ian Bird, project leader for Cern's high-speed computing project, said grid technology could "make the internet so fast that people would stop using desktop computers to store information and entrust it all to the internet. Also, by transmitting data at lightning speed, the "frozen screen" can be eliminated, since its cause is trying to handle too much information.

The grid is unlikely to be directly available to home Internet users, but it will be available to telecoms providers and businesses, and dozens of other academic researchers such as astronomers and molecular biologists.

It has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria by analyzing 140m compounds, an undertaking that would have taken 420 years on a standard internet-linked PC.

"Projects like the grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science,"  Professor Tony Doyle, technical director of the grid project, said.

Source: Times Online

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with  Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of Gulf News, based in Dubai.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)

Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

Gulf News cannot be pigeonholed as either a newspaper company or a print company. It is a content provider. This means that it supplies news to print, online, radio or any other required medium. The organization will survive and sustain in this role that is its core functionality. We do have commercial printing facilities but our focus will always be news, irrespective of where it is published.

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I strongly disagree with this point of view. Firstly, more than two thirds of the world doesn't have internet access; it perhaps has some limited access to television, which leaves print or newspaper as the main medium for receiving news. While circulation may be plateauing and in some cases declining in the West, it continues to increase in Asia and Africa for the aforesaid reasons. If internet has to make an impact, there would need to be development in infrastructure, increased investment, better education and other facilities in place. So the decline in Europe and America is compensated by growth in Asia and Africa for newspapers. The year 2014 is very close; I definitely do not see newspapers losing its significance by then.

In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Digital journalism is part of the continued journey of journalism. When television arrived, people heralded the doom of radio. Today, radio is doing very well and moving from strength to strength. One form of media helps another. Technology has helped journalism evolve and we need to adapt to the changes.

Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

Readers or users are the support system of the journalistic process. There wouldn't be any value to our work without them. Nobody can function in isolation. The increasingly active role of the reader/user in the news process is an opportunity not a threat for professional journalists. We should use the chance to educate readers so that the quality of interaction could be more professional. Ultimately there will always be amateurs and professionals in the world; people need to choose who they deal with.

Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

The Golden Age of investigative journalism is just beginning. As our world shrinks with increased connectivity and people's access to information increases, they are no longer satisfied with the superficial. They want more... they want to know in depth. They want to know what lies beneath the surface.

Can journalism survive newspapers?

Journalism is not dependent on newspapers for its survival. It existed from the time man learnt to communicate through images, words and sounds. Its root or seed lies in speech. When a tribesman climbed atop a rocky outcrop to call out to his people - that was journalism, he was giving them information. Among ancient Arab civilizations, poets functioned as journalists. They conveyed political messages, news, propaganda and other information through poetry. So journalism has existed for a while. Today it has found a home in print, online, television and radio. In the future it will find other means, but survive it will. Journalism will exist as long as man can talk.


Stay tuned for the next week's interviews, which will include The New York Times and the Financial Times.

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with  Jaroslaw Kurski, first deputy editor-in-chief, Gazeta Wyborcza in Poland.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

1. How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We stopped being a newspaper-only company in 1993 when we launched our first internet discussion board. Today we have millions of boards. Our web portal website Gazeta.pl reaches now 6 million unique users per month. It is a magic figure, as it is also the total number of readers of the printed edition of Gazeta Wyborcza.

We started our company in 1989 with a newspaper, but today we are one of the leading multimedia companies in Central and Eastern Europe. We publish newspapers, magazines and books, we run networks of radio stations and an outdoor company.

And we strongly invest in digital media. Our board has an ambition that in three years time more than half of our revenues will come from other sources than print. Until now all our websites reach 44 per cent of internet users in Poland. This is an extraordinary outcome for a newspaper publisher like us.

2. At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Futurists like bold predictions, but as a journalist I prefer to look at facts.

Since 2003 there have been seven new national printed daily newspapers launched in Poland. So we faced a new competitor every single year. Is this rush any sign of weakness of the printed medium?

I believe that as long as we have something important to say and people here care to listen to us and talk with us, Gazeta Wyborcza will exist. The message is important, and the dialogue; and not the channel.

If print becomes irrelevant, we will spread our ideas in any other way. Newspapers will not die, they will change.

Last but not least: a Polish word for a newspaper - "gazeta" - does not have any "paper" in it. So even if futurists are right and print newspapers will disappear, Gazeta will remain.

3. In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Journalism is about intelligible conveying of news and about telling stories of importance that move the community. I appreciate digital tools, they are great and helpful, but they are tools only. You still need a story, a teller and a community. So has anything really changed in journalism?

4. Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

This active role is more than welcome. Let me give you some recent examples from Gazeta Wyborcza.

Since 1996 we have been reviewing maternity wards in Polish hospitals; we wished to improve a quality of healthcare in our country. We could have sent there 100 journalists, but a single mother - who really gave birth in any hospital - can tell you more than reporters. So we asked young mothers for help. In 1996 we got 2000 (two thousand) letters by post. In 2006, thanks to the internet, we gathered 40 000 (forty thousand) personal reviews. We were able to review 423 or 96 % of all hospitals in Poland. We would not be able to do this without our readers.

When we recently reported a huge migration of Poles to the Western European countries after Poland joined the EU in 2004 - we asked readers for help. Hundreds joined our reporting effort.
When we called for saving Rospuda, a wild river in North-Eastern Poland that was sentenced to death by the government - we asked readers for support and thousands marched in the streets, hundreds protested on the spot.

When we discussed a crisis in pensions system - we asked readers for advice and published the best investing guides ever.

We see interaction with readers not as a column of letters on page number 86. It is about inviting readers to play a crucial part in the editorial process.

5. Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

Investigative journalism is a core of our editorial practice and as our world and lives become more complex, I see the need for this kind of public service rising.

We live in the world flooded with information, but it is served in bites, so many bites, that it is getting harder and harder to see the whole picture. We need wise journalists to solve this puzzle.
We live in the world of instant news, but it is often reaching only the surface of problems and challenges that we face. We need great journalits to show what was NOT on TV and the net. We need to understand what really happened.

We live in the world influenced more and more by professional public relations; it changes the way politics is done. We need clever journalists to see what's behind the curtain, to ask the hard questions, to watch hands of those in power.

We live in the world of global economy and large corporations that affect people's lifes and business. We need investigative journalists to provide us all with reliable information to make better decisions.

On Monday (March 10) we broke an exclusive news about a Catholic priest who reportedly sexually abused young boys and about three bishops who - although informed and alerted about the abuses - have been reluctant to investigate the case for 13 years! We publish Gazeta Wyborcza also to uncover stories like this.


Thanks to Kurski for sharing his views. And stay tuned for the next interviews in our series.

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Pana Janviroj, President of The Nation in Thailand.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We're evolving quite fast. For our mass circulation newspapers, it will be a while (that they are still considered print). But I think our company will be multimedia in the near future, in the next five years, maybe it will be closer to 50-50 in terms of print and digital revenue. Right now print is still up over 80%.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I think print newspapers will still exist, but maybe in different forms. They may evolve to become freesheets, because free papers still have many readers and offer effective advertising - advertising on the digital format isn't as effective. The paid-for newspaper may become very rare. In the (longer) future, the format will still be the format of the newspaper, but the carrier itself will change to mobile or e-paper.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

Continuity. It won't be a breakaway. People still need help choosing the news and finding an angle. Content will come in video form, etc., but the compilation of news will not change. Reporters will do more things than they do now, but the news angle will remain. If you look at today's world, there are actually more consumers of news thanks to the Internet and TV.
But the problem is that newspapers don't make as much money as these media. The economics of the Internet will drive changes in newspapers after a while, because Internet advertising in newspapers is still only 7% of revenue. In 5 years time, it might be 15%, but not much more. Newspapers online might end up being part of commercial sites such as Google or Ebay. A news website alone will not generate enough money.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

Yes, it's an opportunity to widen the range of news. but user-generated content is not always news. It can be used other ways, as a comment or in a forum. Of course, when you open up to the mass, you will get a share of news stories, but there's a limitation to it.
Is it a threat? If you look at the phenomenon of reality TV, you'd call it a threat to (traditional) TV drama shows, but reality TV won't replace drama. UGC enables newspapers to have more journalists without having to hire more reporters. It will change the ability of journalists to cover certain areas.
The problem of UGC is that it needs a lot of editing, and it needs a (specific) channel to go out. I don't see at this point any very successful example of a citizen journalism site. UGC has a place, but it's still not an overwhelming media channel at the moment.

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

Neither. Investigative journalism is a job that always has been and there will always be more investigative journalism to be done. The problem will be whether the newspaper or website can afford to hire investigative journalists. I don't know. Maybe the Internet will allow individual investigative journalists to do their work and get paid for it. I don't think the digital format will affect the need for quality journalism though: there will always be a shortage of quality investigative journalism.


Stay tuned for the next interview in our series.

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Pankaj Paul, Managing Editor of The Hindustan Times in India.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"


- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We are in the business of making newspapers, but that doesn't mean we're just doing print. If the traditional definition was that a newspaper company just makes print, that notion has gone away: we have a strong website and are developing a mobile edition. I think we are a news company. The print newspaper in industry in India is still very strong, but we are no longer a single-product, single-platform company.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Not in India. I believe that in India there is still a huge market growing. In the US, the situation is very different for print newspapers, although I can't put a date on it. The situation will deteriorate will very fast, but nothing that dramatic can happen in the next seven years. Maybe in the next 15 to 20 years.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

It's an evolution. Digital journalism is neither a breakthrough nor a breakaway, it's a natural extension of the news gathering and news delivery process. We're simply using new technologies and platforms to do what we do. We gather content and deliver content.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

It is a phenomenal opportunity for professional journalism. The more people you gather, the more people you engage, the more democratic the process becomes. There is no point in sitting in a building and pretending like we control the environment. We have return to 'old-fashioned' two-way communication. It does not dilute the mission. It does not change the mission. If anything it makes it stronger. There is absolutely no threat.

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I think it just started. It never ended. This is one of the basic tenants of journalism. I don't think anything has happened to stop it. If that were to stop, journalism would stop. The Internet gives us more ways of doing investigative journalism through new formats including videos, slideshows, audio...


Stay tuned for the next interview in our 'future of journalism' series.

For its relaunch, the Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Mike van Niekerk, Editor-in-Chief of online at Fairfax Media in Australia.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


Questions: "News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

- How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company?

We don't define ourselves as a newspaper company anymore. Fairfax renamed itself last year and is now called Fairfax Media: it's now a media business, not just online, but in all formats. We've diversified into radio recently as well. Whereas Fairfax was once defined by its two main newspapers, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, it is now much more. Not only because of its new assets, but also philosophically.

- At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

I disagree with that. Newspapers will be around for a long time, although they may not continue to be in the in same format. The economics of newspapers will certainly change, but the significant components of the current print business (such as weekend editions) will be around for at least 20-25 years - though definitely not in same form. Don't underestimate the capacity for innovation that newspapers have. Print will continue to be an important technology for transmission of information for a long time. Newspapers will continue to be printed way past 2014 - don't forget they're still launching newspapers in some markets.

- In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

It's part of the continuum. If you look at the introduction of the telegraph in the 1800s, it also changed the format of journalism, the way people wrote stories, the speed and accessibility of information, and its distribution methods. But I think digital journalism is based on the same skills, which are still useful and important to the way we work on the Internet: it's about telling stories and tracking down the people to tell those stories. Old school journalists who are learning to work for the Internet are delighted to learn that they are extending skills they already have.

- Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

Both. It's a great opportunity to become closer to the community and serving it better. At the same time, we must remain skeptical at what information comes and how you treat it and not saying that it's all wonderful. It's like anything, it's a relationship and you treat it with respect. For individual journalists, it's great to have that immediate contact and feedback from readers. But we must be careful not to allow our better instincts drowned out by what one thinks the audience wants. For example, stories about Britney Spears are regularly highly rated on our websites. Those kinds of stories can be a temptation, but we must be careful about upholding our brand values

- Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I have to be very cautious with this answer. The economics of new media make it very difficult to fund investigative journalism in the same way it once was. If you're talking about the kind of journalism that keeps governments and corporations at check, I am concerned about its sustainability in the future.

Stay tuned for the next interview in our series with Financial Times managing editor Dan Bogler.

Source: Mike van Niekerk, editor Fairfax online

For its relaunch, the Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews with some top editors at leading newspapers around the world about the future of journalism. We kick off the series with Ed Greenspon, Editor-in-Chief of the Globe & Mail in Canada.

The list of upcoming interviews will be updated as they are published (click here to view all interviews in this series). Among the other titles that have been asked to participate in these interviews are:

- The New York Times - Jonathan Landman (US)
- Financial Times (UK)
- Guardian (UK)
- Washington Post - Jim Brady (US)
- Globe & Mail - Ed Greenspon (Canada)
- The Times (UK)
- The Economist (UK)
- Gazeta Wyborcza - Jaroslaw Kurski (Poland)
- Le Monde (France)
- Die Welt (Germany)
- The Hindustan Times - Pankaj Paul (India)
- Asahi Shimbun (Japan)
- JoongAng Ilbo (South Korea)
- The Age / Fairfax - Mike van Niekerk (Australia)
- The Nation - Pana Janviroj (Thailand)
- Punch (Nigeria)
- El Tiempo (Colombia)
- Clarin (Argentina)
- Gulf News - Abdul Hamid Ahmad (UAE)


"News, journalism, newspapers: same past, different futures?"

How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?

We no longer define our company as a newspaper or print company. We define ourselves as a news organization. I would say we began to do so about two years ago. In fact, I can almost pin it down to the day.

We had what in Canada was a major exclusive on a deal that would end the lockout of professional hockey. We were able to confirm the story at about 3:00 in the afternoon. We decided to put it up on the web rather than wait for the next day's paper, even though we would be tipping off our competitors.

While this wasn't the first time we had ever done this, it was a pretty major story and "giving it away" generated some internal debate. Two things happened:

    1. Over a hundred other media around the world cited globeandmail.com as the source of the story in their own reports.

    2. The scoop held in the Canadian newspapers. Even though we had posted it in the afternoon, nobody was able to match it. They also had to cite us in the next day's papers.

The moment presented a good opportunity to truly define what we knew we were becoming - a news organization with a strong base and history in print and a strong presence and future in digital.

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, a panel of futurists claimed that print newspapers wouldn't exist by 2014. To what extent do you agree with this?

Not a whole lot. Printed material has been around for centuries and newspapers have encountered many incursions. The web and mobile have impressive technological and story-telling strengths. They extend our creative and physical reach.

But the newspaper also boasts unique attributes.  It is a thing of beauty that you can touch and take with you.  It is filled with information you didn't know you wanted to know.  It is an entity with which a reader can enjoy an intimate, emotional relationship.   It is a daily one-stop validation of the world around you.

Some forms of newspapers may not continue to exist, but in one form or another, newspapers will survive the internet age as they have survived other ages.

In journalism's multi-centennial history, do you view the emergence of digital journalism as part of the continuity, or as a complete breakaway with previous forms of journalism?

I see it more as part of the continuity. I like to say that the platform isn't print or the web or mobile but that the platform is the journalism. That's the distinguishing factor and the competitive advantage of most news organizations.

The role of story telling goes back centuries and isn't going away. The craft of journalism, the skill of finding out and communicating important information and sorting the wheat from the chaff for your readers, will be in even higher demand as stories become more complex. Digital provides extra-ordinary new ways to tell stories in our world and for readers to take control of distribution and share with one another. So new opportunities abound.

It's only a break if we aren't clever enough to earn the money from the web necessary to finance our journalistic undertakings. I don't see that as an impossible challenge.

Do you believe in the increasingly active role of the user in the news process, and is it a threat or an opportunity for professional journalists?

First off, the closer a journalist can be to his or her audience the better. Users do not replace journalists, they supplement them. We have to stop being afraid to tap into the intelligence of our readers. We also have to understand that we play a unique role as full-time and fully-trained fact finders and story tellers. We now have a new tool at our disposal: the relationship we can build with readers.

Do you consider the Golden Age of investigative journalism is already past, or just beginning?

I think, for news organizations that are confident enough to invest in their journalistic resources, this should be a great age for investigative journalism. In the clutter and clatter of a 500-million channel universe, it is a great differentiator and in an age in which a non-deferential public demands greater public transparency, the place for investigative journalism should be secure.

The fact that it is not speaks to how fear and fragmentation overwhelm many in the industry. It is great that a non-profit, philanthropic entity in the United States is being established to pursue investigative journalism. But I believe there is also a commercial case to be made. The fact that so many news organizations are cutting resources actually creates even more room in the marketplace for those willing to pursue this kind of journalistic-intensive, public-interest approach.


Stay tuned for upcoming interviews about the future of journalism.

Source: Ed Greespon, editor Globe & Mail