Hard-headed realist Rupert Murdoch made international news recently when he forecast there would be no newspapers existing within 15 years.
Sadly, I think he was optimistic and would have been more accurate to have said five years for 90% and a handful, in places like India, lingering on for at best another five years.
I say sadly as by dint of my age I’m a print media lover, they remaining the domain of the older generation.
This puzzles the younger generation, who rely totally on the internet and its immediacy. They’re right of course but life-long habits are not easily abandoned and I love the tactile aspect of print.
Newspaper circulations in New Zealand have dropped to about a tenth of what they were a decade back as their readership dies off.
They’re currently propped up financially by tourism advertising, mainly cruise ship voyages, plus others targeting the same market, such as funeral directors, funds managers and the like.
Our largest newspaper chain, Stuff was bought for a dollar. 30 years back it was valued in the billions.
Selling it was smart as it avoided redundancy payments. That aside it’s now joined the NZ Herald in going digital and sadly (for me) will not survive much longer in print.
That said it’s possible the dollar purchase could prove smart once print ceases and is replaced by digital.
But that’s on face value for there’s another huge problem facing it. That’s the cold hard fact that the majority of people under 30, no matter how well educated, have little interest in current affairs, lured as they are by the diverse attraction (to them) of the smart phone.
I’m constantly staggered by the mind-blowing ignorance of this demographic, notwithstanding their possession of university degrees.
I say this measurably. My assessment based on numerous examples of talking to say 21 year olds, fresh from university and armed with a degree, is their general knowledge, and particularly history, about equals my generation’s at aged 13.
Ignorance may seem like bliss for its possessors but it’s dangerous and makes people vulnerable to rabble-rousers.
A classic example is Trump. It’s mind-blowing that he became President on a host of counts but reflects what I’ve written above.
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On an unemotional level.
I predicted Trump would win the Presidency based on one simple fact.
He was not a politician.
The American people had been lied to and abused by the Political elites of both colours for generations.
They were looking for an Alternative.
.
Contrary to many peoples’ opinion, about 50% of the voters supported him at both the last and the current elections.
Democracy usually pisses off around half the voting population.
All depressingly true.
Both amusing and shocking to see the blank faces on young Americans when asked if they have ever heard about someone called Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse Tung or Charles de Gaulle. This is why AI has the potential to overtake humanity.
My abiding memory of the tactile aspects of print is doing a paper run in the 1980s, and regularly coming home with filthy black palms!
Amongst other reasons, I think you’ll find the false narrative of main stream media; including the news they control, is whats driving their potential customers away….There’s little objective journalism or balance anymore.
While there’s no doubt the quality of education has deteriorated, I see this as a byproduct of a failing society; where multi nationals, their executive and shareholders are driven by short term dollar returns..
The myth that globalisation was the answer, when its resultant effect has cannibalised virtually everything else of western society on the way through; in a race to the bottom. The politicians and globalists care not for their grandchildren, as history has shown relative wealth only lasts two/three generations, if they are lucky…
Real wealth is not based on the financialization, and unfortunately it has largely become a parasite that has taken over the host…a winner take all society..
Remove the banks and governments ability to create money out of thin air, and you will solve most of the worlds problems…
Its not the sub 30’s who elected Trump, it was and will again be a demograph that would clutch at any straw to save their country from those who can’t explain in simple terms “What is a woman?”
Our weekly giveaway the Bush Telegraph regularly has advertising promoting retirement villages and the benefits of enjoying one’s twilight years in the company of fellow travelers. Playing cards and trips to the zoo with everyone smiling. (I dread the thought myself) Accompanying images of happy old people and their stories, are always others of equal size and space showing smiling funeral directors reminding old people to not leave it too late making arrangements for the last ride so remaining family aren’t burdened with the task.
This week the big story in the BT is about illegal Fly-Tipping on our not so isolated rural roads and the the increasing cost to council of removing the rubbish for proper disposal.. It got me thinking……………..
Almost as bad in a different way, is the number of folk in NZ who still get their ‘news’ from the television.
Too true Sir Bob, one ceases to wonder how or why the Greens and the Maori party get any support; one would assume mainly via fake news and social media posts from the rabble-rousers they are able to convince enough “voters” to tag along with their outsized sense of relevance and financial illiteracy.
I read stuff on line and I have to be careful to see if an headline/ article is an advert or “serious” article.
If they can’t make that clear, how can I trust what else they produce.
There ability is not new, I was involved in a newspaper article in the 1970s and it was garbage/ lies. so nothing is new
I also love the tactile aspect of print on paper, but not the cheap inky muck left on my finger tips after reading the inexpensive newspapers of old.
Too often, there were too many words, when a compressed, punchy writing style would suffice.
If it is the sheer volume of information that is required, then modern technology is the clear winner, but if pleasure is the goal, then in my opinion, the visual and tactile enjoyment of reading short pithy passages, hand printed on beautiful handmade paper is the best option.
I first encountered the beauty, aroma and texture of handmade Camel dung paper when I noticed a street sign advertising this unusual product in Ranakpur Rajastan in 2005. I told my driver to stop and I sat with the vendor, drinking tea, as my paper was bundled up. The cheerful vendor explained the many aspects of her business, and how she had started it to supplement her husband’s meager income as a Camel herder. I’ve since revisited her and purchased more of her paper, which I’ve used as the covers for my hand printed and illustrated books about memories of collecting paua on cold remote windswept beaches on the South Island.
This started my search for handmade papers, which has taken me to old paper mills in North America and Southern Japan. I plan to visit many more and would love to visit Egypt to acquire some papyrus paper.
But for me, the quality of southern Italy’s Amatruda bambagina (rag paper made in a 13th century mill) is the best of all. Large sheets, soft yet strong, with beautifully deckled edges that provide a truly pleasurable experience to hold and admire.
Any wonder ?
Todays Herald cancellation of Hobson’s Pledge utter marxist control from pathetic excuse for news media.
Therefore Herald subscription ends today.
If National plans protecting these clowns through Digital News Control (why?ffs): No more votes for National.
Sir Bob walks in the shoes of philosophers such as Socrates – Socrates’ legacy in the formation of youth includes an emphasis on the importance of moral and intellectual development, the promotion of critical thinking and the appreciation of dialogue as a means of learning and personal growth.
The neglect of critical thinking has always been mourned by every older generation and today is spurred by the dreaded algorithms that power the internet – type in anything and your inbox will be flooded with junk purporting to be the final truth. No wonder our youth are confused.
Newspapers are going the same way most of the technological revolutions of the past two or three centuries.
Change, the only constant in our lives (apart from death and taxes) leads us ever more speedily into a murky future.
Like him or loathe him Trump is right, there is too much fake news. It’s sad the demise of the printed word has happened and yes technology is responsible. However it’s hard to find an outlet that states facts, good or bad and leaves it to the reader to form an opinion or dive deeper into the issue in question. The issue killing the media is we are feed opinions, always from a biased point of view, left, right or whatever, seldomly balanced. Why have a good general knowledge when like common sense, it’s hard to sort out the wheat from the chaff
Bob, you’re right on so many fronts with the potential death of newspapers as we know them. I think they will be dead inside of 10 years. Circulations have been steadily declining for decades. Murdoch’s empire will just do what it always does – move on to the next thing – digital as opposed to print. It’s just business. He has used his newspapers for his own political ends with scant regard for the truth, facts or balance. The phone-tapping scandal bears this out. Newspaper proprietors/barons have been political animals for a very long time. In my experience (41 years in newspapers) the journalists of old had the ability to value and report the facts and do so with balance and integrity, and put their own political leanings to one side. That has changed for the worst with a new generation of journalists (indoctrinated by university academics and social-media), who see themselves as “activists” for whatever left or right-leaning cause takes their fancy. People have rightly grown weary of this new lack of journalistic integrity and balance and are abandoning newspapers, because they see that the media has morphed into something that can no longer be trusted with balanced reporting.