[LINK] "How to save the print media"

[rfmcdonald]

Over at The National Post, Jonathan Kay has an interesting rumination on what sorts of print media are likely to survive in the short to medium run.

When tracking the pressures on print media, most analysts focus primarily on the encroachment of electronic forms: As has been widely noted, few of today's 20-somethings sit down to read a newspaper--instead, they get their news from computer screens, cell-phones, and Jon Stewart.

But two other phenomena are at least as threatening to print: (a) the death of spare time; and (b) the death of community.

Regarding (a), I've learned a lot about the threat facing my industry simply by observing my wife and her friends. These are well-educated women with families to feed and clothe, and a fair bit of discretionary income--exactly the sort of advertiser-coveted readers who could once be counted on to read at least one newspaper. The reason that many are not has nothing to do with their gadgets: Simply put, they're too busy. Like most of us in the new economy, they have open-ended job responsibilities--so whatever time they spend in front of a computer screen or Blackberry is usually spent working. By the time they get home, they've only got a few hours to spend with their family and feed themselves. Before the kids are even to sleep, the parents are exhausted.

These are people who want to read. They belong to book clubs, subscribe to serious magazines, and buy ambitious novels that sit on their bedside dressers. But the only extended period of time they have to themselves is in the car--the one place where you can't read. (This explains why newspapers have a brighter future in nations with a richer public transit culture--like Britain. It also explains why radio will continue to be a great business long after my own ink-stained career has faded.)

The breakdown of Canadians' sense of community has also contributed to newspapers' challenges. Slogging through stories about the people who share your city, your province or your country makes sense only if you feel a sense of emotional investment in your neighbours. But in a globalized age, an increasing share of Canadians don't feel that way. As office-bound yuppies, they commune with their distant college-era friends using Facebook or email, but don’t know the names of the people they pass on their street. Immigrants, in particular, are less likely to feel attached to the parochial concerns reflected in their local paper. What Asian newcomer to, say, Quebec, is going to want to read endless articles about the Montreal Canadiens or the infighting within the Bloc Québécois?

Kay suggests that three sorts of print media--business-oriented emdia like the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, publications catering to "the ideologically involved and intellectually upscale " like The Atlantic Monthly or Canada's Walrus Magazine, and publications carrying news about what's going on with the taxes and the roads and street festivals in a particular community--are best-positioned to survive.