Are newspapers still relevant?

Over the last 2 years, I’ve discovered more about the media industry than I ever expected to. And as I exit the industry I thought it was worth capturing some of my biggest learnings.

Undoubtedly the industry is going through massive changes, facing competition from the duopoly of Facebook and Google, shift in readership behaviour and more recently, Covid. On a more personal front, I definitely see a shift in the relationship my parents had with the newspaper versus my relationship with newspapers.

What do I mean?

Newspapers back then was very much a primary source of information and a core topic of conversation. It was quite a common scene in kopitiams where connections and conversations are centered around the newspaper. I’m sure for many of us north of 30 years old can picture an uncle or two proudly walking around with a folded copy of the newspaper under his armpit as a badge of honor.

It’s different now.

My dad used to spend hours flipping through the papers over morning coffee. It was almost a ritual. This marked the start of the day. However now, news is consumed on the go, readers spending mere seconds scrolling feeds while waiting for the bus. It’s become more of a time filler; quick skim read for punchy headlines to be shared in one of our many whatsapp groups.

There’s been quite a shift in how he reads the paper. Traditionally papers by nature are linear. He has to flip through the pages, scanning headlines before zooming into it. This very act provides an element of discoverability (stumbling across interesting articles). Compare that now to how we consume the news; articles are recommended and pushed based on personalised past history, peer preferences and what’s trending. You might argue that this is a time saver; show me what’s relevant to me, show me what I like. But, this is a tradeoff between curated news (show me what I like) versus discoverability (something I might like but have not seen before). Extreme personalisation could be pigeon holing us to what we like or aware off only

And there is also a different motivation on why he chooses to read the papers. It was to be kept updated on the happenings, to be an expert in kopitiam conversations and to check the football results. Now, the aim is to be the first to share the news (research has already shown that many share the news without even reading or validating it first).

It’s definitely no wonder that fake news is prevalent.

Change in this industry is inevitable and is already happening. But I believe newspapers are still relevant. We are consuming more content and information than ever before.

But what newspapers need to do to be relevant is redefine their relationship with the audience, communities and businesses. And let’s call it media from this point onwards given the different digital medium we consume content. Newspapers are synonymous with the print medium.

The relationship media have with their readers has always been focused on providing quality content. Media’s writes the stories people read. This needs to now shift to engagement. Readers want to be part of the experience — to be able to share, comment or even to create their own content.

Whilst the relationship media have with businesses is about creating awareness for products or services. Media hosts advertisements for readers. Media now can no longer just provide advertisements to businesses but to provide solutions helping a business build a brand, grow its presence and simply convert more sales.

And finally the relationship with communities. Media must evolve beyond just as information providers. Media has a role to be the platform of choice to bring people together, to shape and unite communities. If anything, this is more important now than ever in this divisive world.

I strongly believe that the media (and newspaper) still has a vital role to play, albeit in a slightly different form than before. Like what they say, change is the only constant and I am looking forward to witnessing this tide of change.

*Freddy is trying his hand in writing and is finding it very difficult given the many years of Powerpoint training in consulting