THE ERA OF TRADITIONAL MEDIA VS THE ERA OF INTERNET.
by Adrian Mgaya
Every thing under the sun have to change because there is "nothing last forever" this is include also newspaper where by it could must allow some changes so as to fulfill peoples' needs.
Mathias Doepfner is the current chief executive Axel Springer SE, when he was interviewed by BBC in Hard talk program, he gives a lot of his opinion about the competition between online media and printed media and more important he says about the future of digital media.
 |
| Doepfner during the interview in hardtalk BBC |
Mathias Doepfner is the chief executive of Axel Springer SE which is a printed newspaper but he still believed that Internet performed better that media personnel who are dealing with printed media should also practice online media, that is to have their printed session at the same time they should still to print their newspaper in papers.
His company (printed newspaper) for example developed a clear digitization strategy for the company which has been systematically implemented ever since.He believed that Digitization is attractive. It is not a threat to media companies, but rather a huge opportunity.
Doepfner believed that the digital economy provides many more opportunities compared to traditional media. for him digital media(online media) provides new markets. In the analog world(printed newspaper), there is no opportunities to reach many audience due to national boundaries.
For example to launch a newspaper in German you had to own printing plants there, or have contracts with printing plants. You had to organize distribution, to have those things are so expensive and some times you need a lot of capital to control all of these.
In the digital world, the only border you have is language. Apart from that, the world is your market. The only solution for this is to use English language the only language which is almost spread all over the world.
Printed newspaper still has a long future ahead. In many situations, paper is an advantageous and pleasant reading medium. But we should be thinking much less about the carrier media or distribution channels. What is important is the content and the journalism.
In the digital world of all places, content is the only distinguishing feature. It is no longer paper quality or dense distribution networks that matter, it has come down to two questions: How important is the information? How good is the story?
People choose what they wants including what is easiest way for them to get something, in that sense it involve what is cheap for them and how they can get it, is it simple or complete?
In the process of getting news readers will prefer to choose online media rather than traditional journalism (printed newspaper) due to different favorable reasons.
Traditional journalism is so complex to readers whereby it guides the reader through a linear narrative while the online journalist lets readers become participants, as they click their way through a hyperlinked set of pages.
Much of the journalism published on the Web and elsewhere online amounts to nothing more than traditional magazine or newspaper articles and graphics, perhaps with some added links to related web sites.
Online journalism can be published in real time, updating breaking news and events as they happen. These will add advantage to online media whereby more reader will prefer to read it to get more information.
Also in online media there is an advantage of viewing both video, image and learning materials printed online also listening to audios posted on online media, those things are impossible to be provided by newspaper, the only things available for newspaper are images and printed materials.
During the interview Mathias Doepfner discusses several issues about printed media and the development brought by online media which some of them are similar to Tanzania.
In Tanzania there are large number of newspaper where almost most of them were in printed papers but as the time goes on, these media were started to change due to the competition brought by online media and electric media at the same time.
Deciding to own online for print media is a good decision for them and it is an avoidable step because they have multiple audience, those who read online and those who read printed newspaper.
To do so could allow double profit by having many audiences also they will not loose their audiences in future, by providing them breaking news which are difficult to be provided in printed newspaper whereby you should wait for the next day to print newspaper and to sell it.
Therefore it is important to note that newspaper should have to still continue to publish their newspaper in paper but more important to own online forum so as to update their information.
Comments
Post a Comment