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The future of print media is in the net

The online offensive benefits internet users, but what does it mean for the future of media? Thomas Mrazek takes stock and a look into the future.

In three, four or five years it will have more readers than the printed "Spiegel", is how Spiegel Online's editor in chief, Mathias Müller von Blumencron, paints the promising future of his medium. Until recently, media makers and colleagues of his would have found this prognosis pessimistic as far as print media is concerned.

Newspaper machines
Photo: Stacy Braswell

Online first

Now it is a generally accepted opinion in the media world: online is overtaking print. Paradoxical as it may sound, print has to provide the speedy internet versions with the fuel for the overtaking manoeuvre - namely the contents- in order to secure its own continued existence. "Online first" is the motto; all news is to be published on the web first. Pioneer of this practice in Germany is the daily newspaper "Die Welt" from the Springer publishing house. Of all publishing houses, it was the Springer, known for its bourgeois-conservative stand, which announced "almost a revolution" at the end of 2006 and began publishing the contents of the paper on the internet first. In other countries only a few US papers have been practising online first for a while, and in Great Britain "The Guardian" and "The Times" have been giving the web priority on hot news items since last summer.

Digital growth

The main winners in this online offensive are above all the internet users: they receive high-quality information on their screens free, often several hours before it's in print. Isn't this ruining the newspaper business for the Springer publishing house, for example? Christopher Keese, editor in chief of Welt Online and the newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" is convinced that this is not the case. "Newspapers and websites don't harm each other. Our growth on the net does not conflict with the success of the papers, as we are not giving away contents online, but rather offering them to an interested audience. The more people we can attract, the more gratifying the developments on the advertising front."

The audience on the net is continually growing. According to (N)Onliner Atlas 2007 about 60 per cent of the population - this means approximately 39.2 million Germans over 14 years of age- use the internet, and also enthusiastically access classical newspaper and magazines. The advertising market on the web is booming too In 2006 internet advertising totalled around 8.7 per cent of the advertising market. In comparison newspapers (20.9 per cent) and magazines (24 per cent) are still doing relatively well.

Big advertising pie

The advertising pie totals 1.9 million Euros. This pie won't be increasing much in size in coming years however, and is furthermore dependent on economic developments. Prognoses for the online branch, meanwhile, continue optimistic, that the advertising sector's share will increase proportionately. There are, however, many campaigning for the advertising millions; Google is but one of them. The search engine apparently made a turnover of 750 million Euros in Germany in 2006 with online advertising, which according to Berlin media scientist Robin Meyer-Lucht, is more than the total advertising turnover of the national quality press in Germany.

Grab the profits

The important thing now is for the publishing houses to secure their potential web income. To this end, the leading German internet daily (Süddeutsche.de) upgraded at the beginning of 2007. According to the editor in chief Hans-Jürgen Jakobs they realised that they'd been too hesitant in past years. They observed their competitors investing heavily and growing, as well as the excellent prognoses for the online advertising market. The Munich-based paper not only increased editorial staff to 25 editors, they also redesigned their website.

Quality journalism

The strategy for the internet is based on well tried virtues, as Jakobs explains: "Our fundamental realisation was that we can best access the potential of the web by providing quality- a quality journalism online equal to that of the printed newspaper." Dozens of publishers have since chosen a similar path to that of the Süddeutsche: on the one hand they have recognised the dangers that the internet poses, for example for the advertising market; and on the other hand they want to utilise the possibilities there and have invested in staff and Websites. Dirk Ippen, of the Ippen Publishing Group, describes the contradictory situation his guild is in thus: "The internet is a serial murderer and for mass media both a danger and a major chance; the greatest media revolution since Gutenberg 550 years ago." Ippens maxim is get onto the net: "Our only chance is to extend our reach and good subject matter- text and advertising- via digital methods."

Demanding public

These insights alone are not enough, though. In order to be successful on the internet, journalists have to adapt to the rules which apply there. Not only is there endless room for publication, but texts can be linked with pictures, videos, multimedia offers and hypertext, and there are no more copy deadlines or broadcasting times. Cross-media publication - the production of media content for different mediums simultaneously - must be learnt. Many publishing houses are, however, only now beginning to seriously look into it. The audience is also not as easy to please as in the print medium. It is sometimes spoilt, expecting immediate reporting and categorising of events, requiring that the subject matter be relevant and useful, and can often be very picky: "If you don't give me the information I'm looking for I can find it myself on the next corner", is probably what users think to themselves; Google makes it possible. If something goes wrong, there may well be email complaints within minutes, or even entries written in forums or weblogs. Many readers have become active net-users capable of researching and publishing on the net themselves.

Magic tricks

Unfortunately journalistic contributions on the net repeatedly provide grounds for complaint. Journalistic standards suffer as a result of competition and time pressure. Journalists themselves, therefore, still don't hold internet journalism in high regard. Upholders of quality journalism are often responsible themselves for this negative image. The authors of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung study "Clicks, rates and emotive words: news sites on the internet” established that very few clicks on the publisher's sites go back to editorial subject matter. Not even one fifth of the visits to most portals or newspapers stem from the original editorial texts. Most clicks go to picture galleries, access to security depots, dating agencies, share price queries or job data bases, all of which flow into the click statistics.

The authors Steffen Range and Roland Schweins call this tactic magicians' tricks. Not the best way to establish print media on the net, although it would be more necessary than ever. Only very few still believe the tough catchphrases so readily decried by publishers such as "Print will never die!" or "Print has a future!"
The future is determined, one may generally assume, by the "young people", for whom print, to put it mildly, is not important: According to the JIM study of the Medienpädagogischer Forschungsverbund Südwest, only 2 per cent of 12-19 year olds could least go without newspapers, and only 4 per cent least magazines; the internet (19 per cent) and computers (26 per cent), on the other hand, are rated much higher. The future of print is most likely going to take place on the net.

Thomas Mrazek

Thomas Mrazek is communications scientist and works as journalist and lecturer. He runs the magazin Onlinejournalismus.de and lives in Munich.
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