Not much of breaking news is covered by newspapers in India. The 24/7 news channels fill that spot. If anything, the newspapers merely parrot what has already been said on TV, adding a bit of spice along the way!

In fact, I wrote an essay titled ‘How will the Press buffet the waves of the New media’ to enter journalism college! I’ll try and post it on my blog sometime. In it I had spelled out the same aspects you’ve mentioned here. In depth analysis is the only way out for newspapers as compared to news websites.

I am not aware of the Poynter study, and I’m guessing it was based on data collected from affluent countries, like your own, where an overwhelming majority have access to the Internet. Here in India, newspapers are still the easiest way to disseminate news, for obvious reasons.

By “absorb” I suppose you meant ingesting news. If not, what’s the point in reading through some material if you aren’t able to remember the details as you would if you were to read a newspaper?

I think newspapers will have to redefine their role and their market. They’ll have to focus on commuters and instead of focussing on breaking news, they’ll have to shift to more analysis.

I suppose it has to do more with the decreasing attention span of people more than anything else. Add to this 24-hour news channels, and it’ll become clear why newspapers are being edged out, albeit slowly.
Mumbai, the business hub of India, introduced tabloid-size newspapers to cater to its vast, busy workforce. This was done much before any other city in India could even spell the T in tabloid!

In the US, it’s definitely a case of newspapers dying, at least in their print versions. What papers here are doing is trying to shrink the size of the newspaper and sell it to commuters on mass transit, and they’re building up their web sites with content other than just news articles (blogs, videos, flash-based graphics, etc).

this just came into my inbox, and is along the lines of what you say.

- s.b.

You’re right about the fact that blogging has increasingly become an easy way to disseminate information to the masses. Online journalism is here to stay. At the same time, I hold a brief for the more conventional forms of journalism such as newspapers and magazines. Their impact and reach cannot be ruled out.

But there’s the ‘disgruntlement’ factor if one were to work for the print media, and I am the prime example of it! Having worked for no more than 4 suffocating hours at Deccan Herald, and tossing my resignation the next day, I feel I am (sadly) qualified to speak my mind against the pathetic manner in which newspapers conduct business today.

I had the guts to dare to be different instead of silently tolerating the nonsense at Vijay Times and Deccan Herald. While I openly made my opinions known to my seniors at Vijay Times (editor included), I had reached a point where I couldn’t give a damn when I joined Deccan Herald; hence I quit without batting an eyelid.

I gave print journalism one last shot when I rejoined Vijay Times at the behest of the editor and realised a few months later that I’d made a dreadful mistake. The problem with passionate people like me is that journalism is a calling in life and not just another job. While, the majority of those in the field of print journalism remain clueless.

I might have digressed here, but certain truths must be told.