More Debate on the Future of Newspapers

The Blog of Shane Richmond on Telegraph.co.uk reports from a seminar organised by Polis to discuss the death of newspapers.

According to Shane,

"Since 2001 online news consumption has risen 200% and, we were told, for every one per cent of growth in broadband penetration there is a 0.2 per cent drop in newspaper circulation.
In the year 2012, it was suggested, a typical media group will have a stable of publications: a daily premium news magazine, a free daily paper, a portfolio of websites, an internet television channel and a hyperlocal publishing network."

One of the problems of what will replace them has been how to replace the newspaper as an easy method of reading.

It's that model of media consumption that leads me to believe that media delivery to portable devices (phones, PDAs, electronic readers, flexible displays etc) will, at some stage in the future, supersede ink-on-paper media. I think so, others in the room disagreed.
For them, the devices will always be too expensive and too awkward. The convenience of paper - combined with advances in digital printing, which allows personalised print products for every subscriber - will reign supreme for the forseeable future.

His argument is that the current young generation are used to consuming their media in other ways.

By the time today's youth reach the age when they would normally become regular newspaper readers they will have been exposed to a totally different media experience. One that, crucially, meets their needs better. What does print media have to offer them?

Reading the comments posted on the blog,it seems the argument is that papers will always have a place beacuse of their ease of reading,one respondent quotes the argument

you can't do a crossword on the interest or read an interesting article over breakfast. With a newspaper you can go straight to an item whereas on the internet you have to find the website and then the page etc etc. With a newspaper you can lean back on your settee and enjoy a read, you can't do that on the internet.

I still beleive that the internet will simply do to newspapers what Television and Radio did,produce more and varied competition.