The Newspaper Industry & The Internet

Few years from now, the newspaper industry for sure would look very different around the world. Patricia Sullivan, points out that some news organizations surely will die as the Internet disrupts and remakes the century-plus-old newspaper and half-century-old television industries. But overlooked in this massive transformation are some underlying insights that should give pause to those who would put a gravestone on the mainstream media. He adds, The Internet has largely replaced the immediacy of radio and television for breaking news. Well indeed true. Last week the Guardian adopted a "web first" policy for business and international stories, putting newspaper stories online as soon as they are edited. The Guardian is launching a new service providing readers with a rapid overview of news that will be updated every 15 minutes. G24 will be a free service featuring news content from the Guardian Unlimited website across five areas: general news, international, economics, sport and media. Users will be able to log on to Guardian Unlimited and download an eight to 12-page A4 pdf document, which can then be printed off. They can select any of the five news streams. Newspapers are increasingly using the web as a platform for fresh content rather than waiting for the printed edition to be published before stories can be filed. My good friend, JK points me to Group 1's technology that enables organizations in nearly fifty countries to create billions of personalized business communications for multi-channel delivery - Web, print, fax, or e-mail. By providing complete control over personalized messaging, our technology ensures consistent branding across multiple communications channels. The technology enables, organizations can personalize direct mail, letters, brochures, newsletters, contracts, and booklets for on-demand printing - all with a single solution.One can have a look at the preview copy here. What next - affinity marekting, without doubt. There's no question that the Internet has changed the news industry in the past decade. Old media has learned that simply shoveling content from one medium to the Web doesn't work, any more than reading a newspaper into a TV camera capitalizes on the strength of that medium.