Whither Print ?

Having decided to start a blog on Print Media, I suffer from occasional bouts of self-doubt of a lover who can never be sure. In one of my earlier posts ( "Babu Boro Najja Korey"), I had put this question to you. This time around I decided to ask it of 2 LinkedIn Groups that I am a member of - Those in Media and Media Professionals and Managers. Here are some of the answers I received :

Richard Klicki wrote:

Print's imminent demise is more of a U.S. thing, where publishers here have been very slow to recognize ... or even ignored ... changing reader habits over the past 25+ years. I think European news orgs have recognized that and adapted their print products to meet those readers' needs; hence they are more viable and will survive in the Internet age.

Here in the U.S., you're going to see a dramatic shakeout as print eventually catches up to its counterparts in the rest of the world. What you won't see anymore is a one-size-fits-all newspaper that has been the norm for centuries. Big metro and regional newspapers will be more drastically different than the smaller, more local newspapers. But those who do not or cannot adapt quickly will die as the revenue stream continues to shift away from the general-interest newspaper.

Viraj Kalra wrote:

I think print is here to stay!

It might loose market share (as it already is) in most markets sooner than later but will it go completely extinct? I think not! It needs to evolve to become more niche and target focused and have online and mobile downloadable content but the physical paper will always have takers.

In India like a friend pointed out earlier - education coupled with bandwidth will keep print growing in times to come. At the same time in European countries like Italy, France and even UK (where education and bandwidth are not a concern) where I have most of my media clients - print is still mainstream and new media is an add-on feature.

Lastly, it is a habit thing... in the morning when on the pot ;) traveling alone in the underground, on that long flight; in the dentist's waiting room... print in its many avatars is your true friend!


Marion-Isabelle Muszynski wrote:

Dunno in India, but in Europe, print will never die. Even the youngest are attached to printed stuff. Print industry only need to adapt its strategy.

Aseem Malhotra wrote:

YES print has strong potential to grow but need to evolve a bit as far as content goes. Nowadays in busy lifestyle no body has time to read papers
With 30 to 50 odd page. Finding Once type/ choice of content from 30 -50
Odd pages is still time consuming. Now its time for News paper to be Repositioned like youth paper, students paper, Senior citizen specific paper, Bpo/KPO specific etc, to be specific Rather than mass/General choice Paper. Hope this will happen soon there will be papers, which will be TG specific rather than Masses.


Mike Jones wrote:

Print in India still may be or have growth potential. However, I don't believe in the US print will continue to grow. It lacks the ability of being interactive with the consumer, reader, user... With most communication mediums...users look more with engagement and being about to actually interact with its medium of choice. And because solid print cannot offer that...it will sure to slip in the future

Kapil Munjal wrote:

Every media type is expected to be strong in respective verticals. PRINT is going to grow in verticals such as Education and property. Classifieds are going to move out to an online free-free model; In India however, the literacy levels have to still catch up and coupled with broadband issues, Print in India is only going to grow rapidly over the next decade at least.

any further thoughts on this? keep writing in...