Khawaza Main Uddin

Most people on earth go with the tide; only a few dare to set new trends by their deeds and sayings.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of information technology (IT) enthusiasts and non-journalist academics around the globe hold the view that newspapers would die soon with the expansion and dominance of the online media. They found a strong ground for making this prediction the moment Newsweek had stopped printing in 2012.

But we haven`t heard much from them when the US magazine, which was first published in 1933, re-launched its print edition earlier this year and the initiative was taken by none but the digital news company, IBT Media, which bought the Newsweek.

There is hardly any reason to criticise the ones who hypothetically expressed fears about sustainability of the print media after the advent of the Internet. However, those who uncritically echoed the same words about the `death` scenario concerning this media have been proved to be thoughtless proponents who love to consider themselves as dynamic thinkers in the domain of journalism. The case of the Newsweek has confirmed one thing: We need print matters, be it for comfortable reading, carrying solid (hard) copies or record-keeping of history. This also reinforces the old saying that future, in certain terms, is hardly predictable in many eases. And journalism is also not a matter of soothsaying.

In Bangladesh, the challenge before newspapers is believed to be two-fold. Firstly, typical newspapers may lose readership and advertisement revenue to the Internet-based entities. Secondly, television channels, too, may eat into advertisements generally meant for the print media. In both cases, newspapers are supposed to be the losers and online news organisations and televisions channels the gainers.

Is the equation so simple? More than two dozen TV channels are competing with each other with similar news contents or products and most of them have undercut the rates of advertisements so much that they are just increasing losses. Online news sites are playing the role of, what can be likened to, oxygen in flame - they have threatened conventional newspapers, but they, barring a couple of them, have not been able to become self-sustaining and predominant sources of information as yet.

Newspapers alone have not been exposed to the risks of fall in revenue and readership, instigated by new realities of evolution of technology, urbanisation, globalisation and commercialisation of many aspects of life. Popularity of television channels is fluctuating - with broadcasting of too many advertisements in the midst of on-going programmes, being one of the reasons for disturbance. Presentation of news and coverage of the same by television channels are constrained by certain limitations of the visual media. Online as a medium is still new and enthusiasm for it may not be there at the same level in future.

Newspapers, on the other hand, are facing challenges from within - competition between newspapers themselves, internal cost management to cope with new realities and stopping misuse of resources - and from outside - decline in reading habit and advertisement fatigue worldwide.

It is actually professionalism which has been challenged by modern-day trends like unhealthy competition in the market, increasing restlessness among viewers and readers and the rise of amateurism in the media, or, in other words, citizen journalism. This is applicable for all the three media - newspapers, television channels and online media.

Newspapers themselves were a major `culprit` for inviting this crisis for the industry, by increasing excessive dependence on advertisements for cost recovery. Still, the advertisers are not ready to offer the same rates to the digital medium. Some of the Western marketing gurus like John Wanamaker have found digital advertisements not-so-useful - and even worthless.

Social media sites like facebook and twitter, and sometimes personal blogs, have made information easily available and cheaper, virtually offering themselves as alternatives to newspapers. How should we view the declining popularity of social networking sites, to some extent, in Europe and America? It suggests the first generation enthusiasm with technology may not last long. Moreover, feeding information by amateur writers and journalists can never meet needs of, and demand for professional writing and journalism. Informal and unedited comments and news items have breached privacy, often creating irritation and tensions.

Therefore, online has offered newer opportunities, alongside posing challenges, for newspapers to develop as the multi-media outlets. The conventional newspapers, apart from carrying on with their print editions, may add - as some of them are increasingly doing today - interactive features, amateur photography, business tips and opinion polls, video clips, voice over and citizen journalism to its existing contents on the net. They can no longer afford to ignore various segments of the society and instead must listen to them. Online versions of newspapers give the readers the taste of a combination of the media, keeping or attracting traffic and emerging as a global player like that of The Guardian newspaper. For survival of the printed version of newspapers, they must present tightly edited copies, highly relevant contents and linguistic excellence.

Critics of newspapers claim that the online news portal can be launched and run with a lesser amount of capital and that a television station requires only one-time investment. But this is a fallacious argument. Yes, the online media spend less but earn lesser and in our country, we witness mushrooming of online newspapers without unique features of their own. The Bangladeshi television channels, most of which are still "subsidised" by their politically influential owners, need to upgrade technologies and inject fresh blood into their human resource pool and encourage development of sophisticated skills every now and then, if they want to sustain themselves. Thus, it can be easily assumed, not all the online entities and television channels would survive.

Even globally, none of the three media has managed to make readers and viewers understand the value of time, efforts and quality of reporting and professional writing. Availability of a variety of information on the web has heightened the need for more in-depth coverage of issues, especially investigative and research-oriented reports, analyses and features, for the newspapers to retain their position. Also, the rise of an army of citizen journalists has redefined the importance of professional journalists and writers because of hollowness of the former and depletion of the latter. Society must pay for good reports, analyses, features and opinionated pieces carried by the newspapers. At the same time, the latter do need to offer contents that are worthy to readers at the centre, grassroots and community levels.