The Future is Digital

Since the Internet became widely used two decades ago, there are people who predict the demise of printed news. However there are just as many that argue that the print media will lead a long and happy live in the digital age. In this review I want to examine the two sides of the argument by locking at two papers published in the last 4 years that discuss the future of print media.

Firstly, the article “News Consumption and the New Electronic Media” by Douglas Ahlers published in 2006 by the Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics, which makes a strong case for the printed media. The author uses statistically data to examine if there is a major shift of readers away from the printed media towards the online content. Based on this data he comes to the conclusion that there is no movement away from the traditional medium. He even goes so far as to predict that the online content will never be an adequate substitute for the printed media.1

On the other hand Parker Busswood in his article “News 2.0: How Newspapers Can Survive By Embracing Technological Innovation” published in 2010 by Capilano Undergraduate Review, leaves no doubt that the days of printed news are numbered for two main reasons:
1. There is a generation growing up that is increasingly used to digital content and that expects to get their information in an easily accessible and consumable digital format.
2. The technology for tablets and e-readers is advancing rapidly, making those devices for the first time a real alternative to printed formats.2

Personally, I agree with the views put forward by Parker Busswood in his article News 2.0. The sale of e-readers and tablets has tremendously accelerated recently. As the author mentions, the Apple iPad was sold 300 000 times on the first day alone.3 There is no doubt that the technology of the e-readers will advance further. They will become lighter and cheaper, have easier to read displays, till they finally bridge the gap with regard to usability between a printed newspaper and magazine and the digital device. Once this had been achieved and the e-reader producers can agree on a common format that allows for content to be exchange between devices, there are numerous advantages to the digital format:

· It is easier to customize papers and information in an online format for the needs of a reader
· It is easier to search the content
· It is easier to store the information and retrieve it again at a later stage
· Possibly the electronic papers are also more environmental friendly4

Having moved recently, where I had to lift numerous heavy boxes with books and magazine, I would have liked nothing better then for this information to be available in digitalized form.

However, this does not have to mean the end of good investigative journalism and authorship, quite on the contrary, as Busswood also points out in his article there is a strong need for well researched news articles also in the online format. If the content has a high enough quality then readers will be willing to pay for accessing the online content. In an article published in the “Futurists”, Patrick Tucker mentions that well researched content by reputable newspaper publishers will distinguish the online newspapers better from the blogger scene and Twitter.5

The printed format has been given a grace period but depending on how fast the technology advances with regard to e-readers and tablets it will eventually decline to a minimum. However, this does not mean that newspapers like The Times or the Guardian will disappear with the printed format, if they seize the potential of the digital technology they might even gain strength.


1 Ahlers, D. , ‘News Consumption and the New Electronic Media’, Harvard International Journal of Press-Politics 11(1): 29–52, 2006.
2 Busswood, P., News 2.0: How Newspapers Can Survive By Embracing Technological Innovation. Capilano Undergraduate Review, North America, 1, may. 2010. Available at: http://moodle.capilanou.ca/ojs/index.php/CT/article/view/47/4. Date accessed: 09 Oct. 2010.
3 Apple Inc. “Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day.” Apple. Apple Inc., 5 Apr. 2010.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05ipad.html Date accessed: 09. Oct. 2010.
4 Watson, R. T., Boudreau, M.-C., Chen, A., and Huber, M. H, Green IS: Building Sustainable Business Practices, Information Systems, GA: Global Text Project, 2008.
http://docs.globaltext.terry.uga.edu:8095/anonymous/webdav/Information%20Systems/Green%20IS.pdf. Date accessed: 09. Oct. 10
5 Tucker, Patrick., Newspapers face the final edition: the fate of newspapers: all the news that's fit to tweet?,The Futurist, September 2009, page 2. Available at: http://www.allbusiness.com/government/government-bodies-offices-us-federal-government/12831700-1.html Date accessed: 09 Oct. 2010.