The newspaper industry “is not going to dry up overnight” – these were the words from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s new director of research Robert Picard, speaking at the launch of the institute’s new book ‘The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy’.
The book itself offers a series of essays on seven countries, looking at recent developments and trends in the news media. It was introduced at the launch event by Picard and the book’s editors, institute director Dr David Levy and research fellow Dr Rasmus Nielsen.
Nielsen told the audience that the industry and business of journalism is today widely seen as in a “potentially terminal crisis”, spurred on by some imported American debates. He said the book aimed to make better sense of how these generalisations hold up.
While many of these are common challenges, there are also persistent differences in how the industries developed in different countries. We need to understand not only the common challenges but persistent differences.
For example, according to the book’s comparative tables featuring the most recent figures, newspaper revenues were down 30 per cent in the USA, compared with 10 per cent in Germany. “Germany weathered the storm and can turn its attention to strategic challenges,” Nielsen said.
Fellow editor Dr David Levy said one of the benefits of the book is that it provides a portfolio of different policy approaches and highlights those which need to be considered, shown in summary below:
Stimulating supply – tax breaks, new funding
Terms of trade – aggregators and copyright, ownership/plurality rules, public service media and commercial media
Demand – (only raised in one area of the book)
Before handing over to a panel, Picard said there was a great business misunderstanding in the journalism industry.
The last quarter of the last century was unusually enriching for media. Large firms were created through consolidation, which created a great deal of wealth and produced enormous profits.
There were far fewer financial resources than today in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. We have to think in broader terms when looking at the health of the industry.
There is a good deal of reason to be concerned. Revenues are leaving and not coming back, there are shifts in how people are using information. But the newspaper industry is in fact a very wealthy industry and producing more money worldwide than other forms of media.
It is not going to dry up overnight.
Listen below for Journalism.co.uk’s podcast, including interviews with the book’s editors and members of the launch event panel, Professor George Brock, head of journalism at City University and Professor Natalie Fenton from Goldsmiths, University of London.
Podcast: Download
Tags:
Business,
democracy,
international news,
jpod,
reuters institute for the study of journalism Similar posts:
Using data from 
