Knut Olav msNewspapers: Innovate or die!

The good news for big print media is that demand for quality journalism has neverbeen so high. Yet they need to move with the new technology to continue doingwhat they do best, writes Knut Olav ms, culture editor of the Norwegian dailyAftenposten.

Seen from Scandinavia, the traditional media are by no means on the verge ofextinction. At any rate, their future is rather brighter than the gloomieranalysts, not to mention the many media pessimists, would have us believe. Ithink we need some alternative perspectives.

I've been asked to speak from the viewpoint of an editor at a big newspaperthat used to appear only in print but that now faces quite another reality. Trueenough, newspapers in several countries have major problems. For sure,circulations might fall yet further, even in those countries in the world that readnewspapers most, such as Norway. Costs still need to be reduced and the speedof innovation has to increase.

Innovation is the key word behind my relative optimism. It all depends on theability to transform. The best media organizations have this ability, along withthe will to realize it. They have understood that they need to think and act asnetworks, learning every day from the new social media and vice versa.There is already complex interaction between established and new media, fromhour to hour.

Big, traditional, mainstream media still supply national and internationalreaderships with first class journalism. Indeed, they still influence and changeour societies every single day.

Why? Because they still produce large amounts of quality journalism and havethe capacity to continue doing so. And the demand for quality journalism hasin no way disappeared. Readers are better educated than ever and hence aremore demanding customers and citizens.

They crave insight and reliable information from serious media organizationsthat don't insult their intelligence. Figures in Scandinavia indicate that fewerand fewer readers are looking for sensationalism. Newspapers that deliver thatreally are in trouble. Many of them will probably be gone in not too manyyears. But not the others.

So print media won't die out in the foreseeable future. Crisis? What crisis? Forsure, circulation numbers will continue to fall, but it's possible to adapt to that.For sure, there will be profound changes but a total collapse? The history of

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media technology indicates that technologies don't kill each other; rather, theysupplement one other, continuing to exist side by side.

I'm the editor for culture and oped for the print, web and all other platformswe provide at Aftenposten. Seen from my chair, the new, innovative reality isalready here. Most of us still live in newspaperconsuming societies parexcellence. Norwegian newspapers provide a good example that it's possible tothrive and survive. In Scandinavia there isn't as wide a gulf between qualityand "redtop" media as in England and Germany, for example. Perhaps there'ssomething to learn from that.

One of my concerns is that Aftenposten has many readers over the age of 50.That could be seen as a very major problem. And it's a problem that we arehaving a hard time attracting a younger readership. That is possibly ourgreatest challenge.

However today's demographics tell us that many of the readers aged 50+ willbe alive and in good health until the age of 8090, and might continue readingnewspapers for the rest of their long lives. It would be a grave mistake toforget them. We have to cater to them. Not only that: they are some of ourmost demanding and critical readers. And we know that when we succeed incommunicating better with younger readers, we also communicate better witholder ones.

Another development newspapers are experiencing, taking my own paper as anexample, is an increasing number of readers on the web, as on cell phone/smartphone based platforms. We coordinate on a daily basis with the social media,and many of our journalists and editors are very active on Twitter andFacebook. Social media give us ideas for stories and feedback from readers.We are no longer monolithic media organizations but flexible networks.

I mentioned Schibsted, a Norwegian company that owns both VG andAftenposten, the country's two biggest papers. The company started 150 yearsago with Aftenposten, containing only ads across four slim pages. Today,Schibsted is one of Europe's biggest media companies, celebrated by manymedia analysts, with many legs to stand on, including paidfor ads on the web.That business started as a part of Aftenposten, was then set up as a separateentity (finn.no), and is now copied by Schibsted with considerable successmany countries throughout Europe.

How can we develop quality journalism? We still have the material resourcesand probably make better papers than ever, in terms of professionalized,independent journalism. Of course there are many exceptions and we don'tdeliver consistently good journalism every day.

In some ways it is easier to sell quality than ever before, not least, as I alreadyhinted, because readers tend to be more sophisticated and educated and wantjournalism that makes them better citizens and persons.

Quality journalism means: insight; knowledge and understanding of a complexreality; analyses and qualified opinions; welltold narratives and personaljournalism from the best writers of the day; surprises. It also means beingselective in a world characterized by immense information overload.Newspapers need to choose some of the best material available but also pointto other material, combining the best of traditional and new media. Moderationremains necessary, even if it is the rationalism of a moderating collective.

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In short, we need to offer more of the same and more of the best. Andsomething new, too. Let me just mention some of our innovative spinoffproducts that show Aftenposten's way of thinking:

We publish the magazine monthly Insight. Started just for fun, it now runs 30000 copies a month and is turning a profit. It contains reprints from the paperand more from freelancers both in Norway and abroad. And in April 2011 welaunched a new cultural magazine, K, based on the same editorial model.

It's amazing, isn't it? New printed products! With a market! And with instantsuccess!

But there are even more demands to be met in the way we plan our journalism.We have to strengthen integrated editorial thinking. It isn't easy for papers thatwere originally printbased to see other platforms as equally prestigious, butthat is what we must do. We need think of and present journalism in differentways according to the platform, be it paper, web or smart phone. We need tocontinuously allow readers influence our journalism and recruit new readersthrough social media.

The "death of the book" has been greatly exaggerated. The same could be saidabout the "big media" and print newspapers. They will be around for a longtime, depending on each company's ability to transform. Noninnovativemedia, whether big or small, will disappear while specialized niche media willhave to become even better in their niches. And what about innovative, big,mainstream media? As I said: they are likely to face a very tough, strenuousfuture. Yet it will also be a bright future, given their fundamental will andability to innovate, both in print and on other platforms.

Published 20110701Original in EnglishFirst published in Eurozine Knut Olav ms Eurozine

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