Trends in newpapers

The World Editors forum has produced a mammoth report entitled trends in newspapers.

It is based on the comments of the editors of the top publications around the world and has come to the following conclusions.

1. Intregrate your newsroom step by step
2. Integrate with your readers
3. Cooperate with your competitors
4. Become a portal for your region
5. Create a multi newspaper news room
6. Reach young readers through social media
7. Provide tools for personalized news.

Nothing particually new there and that hasnt been discussed in this blog before.

I was interested in the last section which says that the traditional economic structure of news on the net is dead.According to the report

"The multitude of online competition that newspapers and the media as a whole face is exaggerated by what is arguably the Internet’s most disruptive trait; the freedom readers have to browse any source from around the world at will. Increasingly savvy readers use this new power to customize their news consumption, viewing only the information they want from only their preferred publications. This ‘personalized news’ has substantial and unavoidable implications for newspapers."

And:

"RSS has facilitated the trend towards personalized news. Newspaper websites divide their RSS feeds into sections, subjects and even columnists to which readers subscribe at will. But newspapers also quickly realized that RSS could be exploited to provide readers with personalized services, services that ultimately increase page views and reinforce brand loyalty while simultaneously helping them to browse other sources. "

On interaction the report maintains that

" Readers once frustrated when their quips and qualms weren’t published in the limited space reserved for them are now frustrated if they can’t post their commentary immediately after reading an article. Interactive Web tools have shaken the foundations of a traditionally top-down industry, making it one where the audience has a voice. Newspapers should listen"

And on the subject of getting youngsters on board and their lack of interest in news papers.

"in fact they are very interested. Their infrequent experience with newspapers, be them print or digital, is more due to the hesitation of the “digital immigrants” that run the papers to adopt the Internet practices to which young readers are accustomed."