Citizen Kane: not the greatest advert for newspaper recycling

The problem of how traditional newspapers can survive in the online world and prosper when the vast majority of news content is free is something we’ve dealt with before in this blog.  It’s a isue that’s been around for years now, but has become increasingly urgent as the recession has eaten away at newspapers’ advertising revenue. This week, however, has seen two major announcements affecting the debate.

The first is the launch of Amazon’s next generation of its e-reader, the Kindle DX. It’s reported to be around 250% larger than the old Kindle giving it a screen size equivalent to an A4 page – just the right thing to read a newspaper of magazine on. (I’m still not sure what DX stands for, though.) There’s no doubt that the publishing industry has big hopes for the new Kindle; users may well be prepared to pay a fee for a regular download of an  electronic newspaper or magazine. Some commentators have wondered about the portability of the new device but the screen quality looks good as you can see in this BBC report.

The other big development is Rupert Murdoch’s announcement that he expects News Corporation-owned papers to start charging for their online content within the next year. This would be a major shake-up of the current online status quo and runs the risk of driving readers away from News Corp content to other free content – unless other publishers decide that they need to jump on the same bandwagon at the same time. But even if all the old school publishers go paid-for, other sites such as news blogs and those of big broadcasters such as the BBC and CNN will most likely remain free.

When it comes to the big papers, the suspicion is that many will only ring-fence some of their content – e.g. the more specialist, niche news: business analysis, the Guardian’s highly rated supplements, horse racing tips.

But whichever way the old school publishers jump, you can be sure that the newspaper industry will never recover from the current recession. The dominance of daily papers, which began during the Victorian era and is exemplified by the magnificent Charles Foster Kane – Citizen Kane to his friends – is approaching its end.

Written by Adrian Beeby