It’s 2020. What’s happening to good ol’ fashioned paper? Let’s find out with a handy infographic!
Adapt or Die
“All media will soon be on-demand, especially and painfully obviously in the technology space, and multimedia digital content will be king. Are you a multimedia digital content publisher, or are you still spinning crashing figures for circulations of bits of dead tree smeared with ink? Adapt or die, people. Adapt or die.”
I think Garratt sums it up pretty well. In an age where we can access anything instantly, all from a handy-dandy device in our pockets, who’s going to wait for something to be printed? Right now, we have the option to find the latest news whenever we want. We get to choose what news we want to consume, too. We’re becoming so used to instant gratification – whether it be on-demand television like Netflix, or on-demand reading with Amazon Books etc. – paper doesn’t keep up anymore. If you didn’t read my discussion of the Let’s Play, I talked about the benefits of audio/visual content and how it adds a new dimension to receiving the news. A dimension that paper just can’t achieve.
Will it Die?
“Whatever you now find weird, ugly, uncomfortable and nasty about a new medium will surely become its signature. CD distortion, the jitteriness of digital video, the crap sound of 8-bit – all of these will be cherished and emulated as soon as they can be avoided. It’s the sound of failure: so much modern art is the sound of things going out of control, of a medium pushing to its limits and breaking apart. The distorted guitar sound is the sound of something too loud for the medium supposed to carry it. The blues singer with the cracked voice is the sound of an emotional cry too powerful for the throat that releases it. The excitement of grainy film, of bleached-out black and white, is the excitement of witnessing events too momentous for the medium assigned to record them.”
The concept of ‘materiality’ can be described comfortably with this Eno quote. Albeit it focuses on newer mediums, but take a look at records for example. When everyone flocked to Team CD for their audio-related needs, it really didn’t take all that long for them to revert back to records just because of their materiality. Yes, CD’s were far more convenient and easier to play, but that’s exactly why records regained popularity. There’s something different about putting on a record and watching it have a little spin. And the same could be said for books. I’m sure everyone had their brief foray into digital eReaders, but was it the same as opening up a fresh book, smelling that new-book smell? I even find myself reverting back to scheduled television, simply because the freedom of choice is too much.
Is there materiality to newspapers, something that we can’t find on the latest mediums? The iconic black and white, or the crunch of paper, how it ties hand-in-hand with breakfast? Absolutely. I don’t think the newspaper will ever go out of fashion for this exact reason.
Yes, paper is losing its popularity. But I don’t think it will ever die.
Do you agree? How do you receive your news? Discuss with me in the comments!
