‘Print dollars are becoming digital dimes’
The advent of the internet and rapid convergence of online media platforms has presented challenges for many professions from making music, thwarted by illegal downloads, to advertising where old conventions are considered lackluster against new integrated multimedia campaigns. Journalism is no different. For a long time traditional media have thought to be under treat from new media technologies. However, its seems with new digital news business models being tested we will see short form stories migrate online and long-form stories distributed through digital devices. These changes to the product and distribution of news also affect the definition of a journalists work.
The future of short-form journalism is in online news as newspaper sales are in decline. Though not as catastrophic as popular belief would have it, newspapers are treading toward being obsolete. The average sale of newspapers per day in Australian metropolitan areas has dropped from 2.7 million in 1993 to 2.4 million in 2009 (Este, Murphy, & Warren, 2010). In a recent public address Ken Auletta, columnist for The New Yorker, categorised media corporations in the face of the digital era as either “those that lean back or those who lean forward”. Auletta outlines that media organizations that lean forward see challenges as opportunities. News Limited could arguably be joining the ranks of those ‘leaning forward’. The company has developed a website exploring the future of journalism in Australia. This month News Limited subsidiary, The Herald Sun launched its ‘digital pass’ system. It becomes the first of Australian daily newspaper to offer subscriber-only content. The specific details of the project are the result of intense market and audience research. A business model to create revenue from online content has been elusive for traditional news organisations but The Herald Sun believe that the fremium model is the way forward against the pay per view or all-content-for-subscribers-only models. The fremium model provides some news for free but for in depth coverage and columns by high-profiles writers readers must pay for subscription. Merging newspaper content online is not without its perils. Last year, when the The New York Times launched an online subscription fee for regular readers there was much debate about the price of the product in the market place. In a report released by the Columbia Journalism School, Gueskin, Seave and Graves (2011) put forward examples of online news products by various publications and it seems at this early stage audience uptake of paid digital news distribution can be unpredictable. What is clear from these early ventures is that digital subscriptions are being explored as the future of generating income from online news.
Another aspect of the journalism community in the digital era is the distribution of long-form stories. Online content has a tendency to be shorter and focused on interactivity so, from the surface this platform is not well suited to thousands of ‘black and white only’ words of crafty analysis. On the contrary, it seems a metamorphosis of long-form journalism is taking place. The professional landscape is changing to embrace the possibilities of new media and cater it its readers needs. An application for the ipad and iphone has been developed called The Atavist. It offers non-fiction stories from real places and real events, replacing the typical magazine article with stories interlaced with video, audio, soundtracks, and an audiobook read by the author.
Stories written on topical issues include relevant video footage in the prelude to inform the reader. Readers can switch been reading the stories and having them read out to them. The application is free but the stories are 3 dollars each. The authors are quality writers who receive royalties from purchases. This new type of long-form story accessible from ipads and iphones revolutionises long-form journalism. No longer will an overseas reporter analyzing complex situations simply describe the conditions but links to video footage will be embedded in the story and profiles on the people being discussed will pop up. The usually long-winded nature of in-depth reports now becomes excitingly interactive. New terms are being developed so readers know what to expect, with longer articles now being called ‘long reads’. These longer articles are being distributed via new media platforms such as Twitter. Longread on twitter publishes links to long online news articles from around the world, its popularity lead to the creation of its own website this year which acts as database of all its tweeted articles that can be searched by topic. What this means for journalism is that the quality of journalism will not be lost in the digital era, but that it will be enhanced by multimedia additions and platforms that make it easier for news readers to find in depth analysis on topics interesting to them.
All this change undoubtedly has an affect on the people creating these stories, the journalists. Publishing stories across multiple platforms requires extra work and working with new mediums requires learning new skills. Kwek (as cited in Este et. al, 2010) describes journalists now as their own business unit having to “ write copy, take photos, record audio, shoot video, moderate comments, collect statistics and build databases. And edit and publish.” What it means to be a journalist is changing, is it no longer useful to be a print or broadcast reporter only, journalists must now have an expansive skill set ranging from print to online and broadcast plus the ability to distribute their stories across numerous platforms. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance released a report giving a stocktake of the media industry. In regard to workload, 73 percent of journalists indicated that over the last 2 years their workload increased, with 43 percent believing the increase was ‘a lot’. Work life balanced was also surveyed and in the same period 42 percent of journalists said it ‘got worse’ with 59 percent indicating they weren’t being remunerated for extra work. 54 percent of journalists surveyed believed no training for new media was provided and felt they had to ‘pick it up on the go’. This points to a profession in transition. Journalists are currently being overwhelmed by the demands of multi-platform publishing. Whilst income from these online mediums is unsteady there can be no expectation for journalists to be remunerated according to their expanded skill set. Talking about this predicament American journalist Dick Polman (KellyWritersHouse, 2011) suggests upcoming journalists seem to acknowledge this and then choose this career path out of passion and a love for what they do.
The future of journalism can be seen in new distribution methods for short-form news and a revolutionized presentation of long-form content. These changes are creating a profession that statistically speaks of under paid, over worked journalists, yet the challenge to create and distribute stories digitally seems to be keeping them satisfied...for now.
Reference List
Este, J., Murphy, F., & Warren, C. (2010). Life In The Clickstream II: The Future of Journalism. Retrieved from http://www.thefutureofjournalism.org.au/foj_report_vii.pdf
Future of Journalism AU. (2012, March 4). The impact of traditional news mastheads in the digital world. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bri6df_saz0
Grueskin, B., Seave, A., & Graves, L. (2011). The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism. Retrieved from http://cjrarchive.org/img/posts/report/The_Story_So_Far.pdf
Herald Sun. (2012). Digital Pass Starts Here. Retrieved from http://digitalpass.heraldsun.com.au/?utm_medium=SEM&utm_source=Google&sourceCode=HSWEB_SEM160_a
International Centre for Journalists. (2011, November 2). Ken Auletta: The Future of Journalism, Part 2. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6DVje6C58M
ipadpunk. (2011, February 4). The Atavist - Lifted (ipad App Preview/Hands-on Demo). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3k8YyYY1CU
The Atavist. (2011) Original Stories. Retrieved from http://atavist.net/
Kelly Writers House. (2011, November 3). Future of Journalism: Where will Journalism Be in 10 Years. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoUWOlt5cQo
Longreads. (2009). Tweets. [Twitter account]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/#!/longreads
Longreads. (2012). Search Our Archive. Retrieved from http://longreads.com/
News Limited. (2012). The Future of Journalism. Retrieved from http://futureofjournalism.com.au/
News Limited. (2012). What the Herald Sun is Doing. Retrieved from http://futureofjournalism.com.au/herald-sun/
Pegoraro, R. (2011). New York Times to charge for frequent Web, mobile access: too much? too soon?. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/new-york-times-to-charge-for-frequent-web-mobile-access-too-much-too-soon/2011/03/17/ABjB6al_blog.html
Wikipedia. (2012). Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media,_Entertainment_and_Arts_Alliance
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