Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The end of an era. ‘Stop press’ unnecessary.
Working as a young intern reporter in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the tabloid-sized paper that PPP stories were pressed onto each week seemed to me to be a novel and provincial form, indicative of journalism in the developing world. This was back in the day, when I regarded myself a professional ankle-biter. It was 2010.
Yesterday, three years after my romantic sabbatical experience in Cambodia and but months after i fully graduated from my degree, the printing press dispatched its last broadsheet editions for Australia’s stalwart newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. It heralds the beginning of a shift in Australian print media from the traditional 75 x 60 cm paper dimensions to a condensed 43 x 28 cm. Apparently it is a change that has already been adopted by press in the UK.
This week Metropolitan Media, Fairfax, CEO Jack Matthews told ABC’s The Bussiness that the size-swap is what the paper readership wants, in addition to other cost-cutting considerations, which have been part of operational reforms re-configuring media organisations left, right and centre.
“While they love the content and the quality journalism that it represents, they do find that form factor to be cumbersome,” he told ABC’s Neal Woolrich.
“On engagement, intensity of engagement, ad recall… the compact tested better than the broadsheet,” he said.
Being neither a financial analyst or any kind of self-professed news ‘expert’, I’m in no position to definitively opine if the physical downsize of print-news is for the best; with respect to either content quality or the prospect of revenue increase via sales and advertising space. What’s more, it is hard to predict what it exactly means for my career. So i’ll leave that discussion to the experts.
As a writer and a reader however, as a person part of that demographic referred to by Matthews who ‘engages’ with the news, I do know that the experience of content consumption is very different in a comparison of online and paper mediums.
Personally, i like the static form of a hardcopy newspaper, free from moving distractions, animated advertisements and a comments section littered with over-zealous, misinformed hoo-ha. I find myself more easily lost in a story unraveled in ink, with one, maybe three fine dedicated images to its words.
For a more contextual, multi-faceted experience there’s the varied online platform that offers interactive accompaniments to copy with quick access to related stories, video and audio news packages. It is the best way to get abreast a topic but very rarely am i left totally informed on one, fleshy issue – enter stage right academic entries courtesty enterprising new outfits like The Conversation, which, to boot, transforms the model of traditional journalism in and of itself.
Ultimately, i think the downsize of hardcopy-form news will no doubt drive many of those who formerly stuck to their guns, and favoured reading tangible news editions, to tablets. I count myself among this resistant crowd who will now opt for electronic tools designed specifically for access to news; because the experience of reading stories in hardcopy form has changed to be less of a visual delight and because viewing online content fleetingly, as one of many online activities you juggle while using a computer, is less immersive.
I think the transition from broadsheet to tabloid will push the rise and rise of the tablet.
As for the profession, the craft of journalism — it is an ever expanding job, the hallmark of which should always be a new adventure every day. How we share that adventure, the story, how we churn the content through at the end point, will continue to evolve as we transcend one technological rung to the next.
Watch this One Plus One interview with the late veteran reporter Peter Harvey for a retrospective on life as a journo 40 years ago to date. I remember an encounter with him during my intern beat with Ten News in 2010 – an accompanying cameraman pointed out his old school methodolgy, hanging back and away from the press pack, taking his time to observe the talent as they engaged with others first. “Good journos don’t haggle,” said the cameraman. “They take time to really think about what they’re doing and who they are dealing with.”
Harvey’s passing is the end of another era.
The great thing about journalism is that no matter how much things change, roots matter. There’s always a good story in a retrospective too – 'cause history matters and he is a big part of it.
Yesterday, three years after my romantic sabbatical experience in Cambodia and but months after i fully graduated from my degree, the printing press dispatched its last broadsheet editions for Australia’s stalwart newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. It heralds the beginning of a shift in Australian print media from the traditional 75 x 60 cm paper dimensions to a condensed 43 x 28 cm. Apparently it is a change that has already been adopted by press in the UK.
This week Metropolitan Media, Fairfax, CEO Jack Matthews told ABC’s The Bussiness that the size-swap is what the paper readership wants, in addition to other cost-cutting considerations, which have been part of operational reforms re-configuring media organisations left, right and centre.
“While they love the content and the quality journalism that it represents, they do find that form factor to be cumbersome,” he told ABC’s Neal Woolrich.
“On engagement, intensity of engagement, ad recall… the compact tested better than the broadsheet,” he said.
Being neither a financial analyst or any kind of self-professed news ‘expert’, I’m in no position to definitively opine if the physical downsize of print-news is for the best; with respect to either content quality or the prospect of revenue increase via sales and advertising space. What’s more, it is hard to predict what it exactly means for my career. So i’ll leave that discussion to the experts.
As a writer and a reader however, as a person part of that demographic referred to by Matthews who ‘engages’ with the news, I do know that the experience of content consumption is very different in a comparison of online and paper mediums.
Personally, i like the static form of a hardcopy newspaper, free from moving distractions, animated advertisements and a comments section littered with over-zealous, misinformed hoo-ha. I find myself more easily lost in a story unraveled in ink, with one, maybe three fine dedicated images to its words.
For a more contextual, multi-faceted experience there’s the varied online platform that offers interactive accompaniments to copy with quick access to related stories, video and audio news packages. It is the best way to get abreast a topic but very rarely am i left totally informed on one, fleshy issue – enter stage right academic entries courtesty enterprising new outfits like The Conversation, which, to boot, transforms the model of traditional journalism in and of itself.
Ultimately, i think the downsize of hardcopy-form news will no doubt drive many of those who formerly stuck to their guns, and favoured reading tangible news editions, to tablets. I count myself among this resistant crowd who will now opt for electronic tools designed specifically for access to news; because the experience of reading stories in hardcopy form has changed to be less of a visual delight and because viewing online content fleetingly, as one of many online activities you juggle while using a computer, is less immersive.
I think the transition from broadsheet to tabloid will push the rise and rise of the tablet.
As for the profession, the craft of journalism — it is an ever expanding job, the hallmark of which should always be a new adventure every day. How we share that adventure, the story, how we churn the content through at the end point, will continue to evolve as we transcend one technological rung to the next.
Watch this One Plus One interview with the late veteran reporter Peter Harvey for a retrospective on life as a journo 40 years ago to date. I remember an encounter with him during my intern beat with Ten News in 2010 – an accompanying cameraman pointed out his old school methodolgy, hanging back and away from the press pack, taking his time to observe the talent as they engaged with others first. “Good journos don’t haggle,” said the cameraman. “They take time to really think about what they’re doing and who they are dealing with.”
Harvey’s passing is the end of another era.
The great thing about journalism is that no matter how much things change, roots matter. There’s always a good story in a retrospective too – 'cause history matters and he is a big part of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)