Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.
John Yemma, the editor of The Christian Science Monitor, discussed with me his thoughts on the future of newspapers in my latest podcast.
Yemma and I discussed several topics. What’s clear is that newspapers will continue to evolve in the coming years as Web operations become more important for news operations. Some newspapers will see more of a revolution than evolution.
Yemma believes that many newspapers will be changing drastically in the coming years from the products they produce to how they are staffed. He envisions many papers publishing on less days. The first day to drop may be Saturday, because newspapers could make a joint weekend edition.
Sunday is the most popular day of the week, while Saturday is one of the weakest for most papers. The Monitor is looking at either adding a weekend edition or perhaps dropping down to once a week.
Environmental concerns about newspapers have been raised by some people, and Yemma believes the carbon footprint of print is driving away some younger readers. Trees have to be cut down, paper pulp made in factories and then the paper has to be printed with ink and distributed via trucks.
In addition, he also talks about the “guilt” that many people feel because many daily subscribers don’t read the paper daily. A lot of people are too busy to read a newspaper daily, and they don’t like looking at unread newspapers piling up on their floors.
“If you don’t read it because you’re too busy, after five days you look in the recycling bin and you see four days of newspapers that you have at most browsed the front page headlines, all of that makes it difficult to imagine from a user point of view that this is a very friendly product,” he said.
Yemma thinks in the short term we’ll see more newspapers go to once a week and longer term he can envision a future in which future Kindle and iPhone-like products replace printed products. E-Ink products like the Kindle and other E-readers are in their infancy. Color E-Ink will eventually be a reality and the price of readers will fall.
The the Kindle 3.0 might make a very attractive product for reading news content. And, remember, there is a difference between E-Ink and computer monitors. E-Ink has no back light, and it’s easy on the eyes like paper. Many people like me suffer from eyestrain when we view computer monitors for too long.
The Kindle might provide an alternative product for people who don’t want to stare at a computer screen all day. E-readers are also much lighter than even the lightest laptops and can be easily held in one hand like a book or newspaper. As delivery becomes more problematic for newspapers, E-readers might become a more attractive delivery method.
“I don’t know exactly where print goes in the long run,” he said. “Certainly some great brand names like The New York Times and others will keep up the full run of print for a long time to come.”
Delivery costs are weighing more and more on newspapers. Not only have gas prices soared in recent years, but so have paper and ink costs.
“I think print becomes increasingly problematic longer term because of delivery,” he said. “I’m not going to say that print is dead, but it’s not looking great.”
Yemma said many metro newspapers have suffered because they have tried to be a one-stop shop, providing a breadth of topics covered, but not a lot of depth.
“I think everyone knows the model is broken, and I think everyone is going through a fundamental review,” he said about print. “The old way until 2002 was that metropolitan newspapers were essentially monopolies.”
Some other topics discussed:
- How has the credit crunch and financial situation impacted the Monitor and other news organizations?
- What are the bright spots ahead for journalism? Why should people be excited for the future of journalism?
- What kind of two-way communication does the Monitor have right now, and what are they planning for the future?
- And much more.
- Click here to stream the interview. Or download the MP3.