Media: “News on Paper Still has a Future”

Enlarge

Neil Thurman is a professor of communication at LMU Munich, where his research focuses on computational journalism – the intersection of journalism, technology, and data. He has studied media organizations around the world to understand what happens when newspapers and magazines stop printing their physical editions. Before joining LMU, he taught and conducted research at City St George’s, University of London.

On Friday, the German daily taz will appear in print for the last time – apart from the weekend editions. Is that a brave step or a sign of decline?

Neil Thurman: In a way, it’s both. It clearly is a sign that print readership is shrinking – especially among younger generations who grew up with digital media and have often never bought a newspaper. But many older readers are also moving online.

At the same time, it’s a courageous decision – not popular with all taz members, but from a financial point of view probably necessary. While the readership is shrinking, costs of paper and printing have sharply increased. If the print edition costs more than it brings in, discontinuing it can help stabilize the paper economically, even if it means risking some visibility and reader loyalty.

What have international media experienced with such transitions?

I’ve studied the shift to digital-only at outlets such as the British Independent and the Finnish business newspaper Taloussanomat, which went fully online in 2016 and 2007, respectively. In both cases, the move proved at least financially viable: the Independent, for instance, has since saved substantial printing costs and operates profitably – not with large margins, but on stable footing.

However, the relationship with the audience has changed significantly. While the number of monthly readers did not fall, the attention the Independent attracted dropped dramatically. When the Independent ended its print edition, the time its audience spent with the news brand fell by about 80 percent.

Just ten seconds per day for the online edition

Why is that?

Online attention is much more fleeting – a click here, a swipe there, and you move on to something else. Print, by contrast, requires more engagement: you pay for it, you hold it in your hands, you leaf through it, and you linger. A typical print reader spends around half an hour a day with the paper on weekdays, and up to an hour on weekends.

Online, the situation looks entirely different. Our study found that the average reader of the Independent’s online edition spent just ten seconds per day with it – ten seconds! And while about half of The Independent’s print readers picked up their paper daily, the average online reader visited the website only twice a month.

Digital subscriptions cannot make up for the loss of print revenue

Can the loss of print revenue be offset by digital income?

In short: no. Around the year 2000, newspapers worldwide reached their financial peak. Then came Google, Facebook, and others – taking over much of the advertising market. Today, Facebook alone earns more in advertising revenue than all newspapers, magazines, and radio stations worldwide combined.

Digital subscriptions cannot make up for this loss. In Germany, for example, only about 13 percent of people even pay for digital news – and that figure has been stagnant for a couple of years. It’s simply difficult to persuade readers to pay when there are countless free alternatives online.

The Independent responded by expanding its reach to U.S. audiences – something that’s only really possible in the digital realm. For taz, however, such a global strategy is unlikely to work, since German is spoken by a comparatively small audience.

How does the digital shift affect newsroom work?

At first – surprisingly little. Many of the newsrooms we studied initially stuck to their familiar routines. In Finland, for instance, journalists continued working according to old print deadlines for quite some time after the transition – much to the frustration of some of their editors!

Over time, however, the focus shifted. Online editions allow editors to see exactly which articles are being read. That feedback changes both what is written and how – often leading to more human-interest stories, lifestyle pieces, or visually engaging formats that perform well online. The Independent, for example, now produces far more video formats than before. And taz will likely evolve in a similar direction – toward more visual, interactive, and data-driven journalism.

AI features reduce traffic on the original articles

What impact do AI tools have on newsrooms and readers?

A strong one. New AI features – such as Google’s automated text summaries – reduce traffic, meaning clicks on the original articles, by up to 50 percent. As a result, many publishers report significant losses in reach. Legal proceedings are already underway, as AI systems have been trained on journalistic content without compensating the publishers.

At the same time, there are also attempts at cooperation. Some media organizations have signed partnerships with AI companies, for example to better protect their content or to gain access to new tools. Competition and collaboration often go hand in hand – as they have in previous phases of media transformation.

Resilience of the German print sector

As print declines, does public trust in journalism go down with it?

rint does not automatically mean credibility – that differs from country to country. In the UK, for instance, tabloids like The Sun or News of the World were, for many people, proof that newspapers could be anything but trustworthy. The latter even had to shut down after a phone-hacking scandal. The UK public broadcaster, the BBC, on the other hand, has greater public trust.

But there are qualities of print culture that remain valuable: its slower pace, more thorough research, and the longer attention of its readers. Online, speed and the constant reaction to click rates often dominate. There’s a risk that the virtues print has developed over decades – care, depth, and focus – could fade.

That taz is now the first German daily newspaper to take this step also shows how deeply print remains rooted in Germany. The country has long been a special case: in few other places do printed newspapers enjoy such a high level of trust and cultural significance. The late timing of this transition is itself evidence of the longevity and resilience of the German print sector.

High level of trust in print

As print declines, does public trust in journalism go down with it?

Print does not automatically mean credibility – that differs from country to country. In the UK, for instance, tabloids like The Sun or News of the World were, for many people, proof that newspapers could be anything but trustworthy. The latter even had to shut down after a phone-hacking scandal. The UK public broadcaster, the BBC, on the other hand, has greater public trust.

But there are qualities of print culture that remain valuable: its slower pace, more thorough research, and the longer attention of its readers. Online, speed and the constant reaction to click rates often dominate. There’s a risk that the virtues print has developed over decades – care, depth, and focus – could fade.

That taz is now the first German daily newspaper to take this step also shows how deeply print remains rooted in Germany. The country has long been a special case: in few other places do printed newspapers enjoy such a high level of trust and cultural significance. The late timing of this transition is itself evidence of the longevity and resilience of the German print sector.

What role does journalism – in print or online – still play in democracy today?

A central one. Even though fewer people now read newspapers regularly, newspapers continue to shape the public agenda – for television, online platforms, and social media alike. And they still employ many of the journalists who hold those in power to account.

Social media platforms may have reach, but they do not themselves produce significant amounts of original news content. The editorial culture of many newspapers – with their emphasis on accuracy, responsibility, and public service – remains a cornerstone of democratic societies.

Will printed newspapers still be around ten years from now?

Yes, I strongly believe that news on paper still has a future. For decades, people have been predicting the end of the newspaper – and yet, they persist. A 2012 study forecast that there would be no printed newspapers left in the United States by 2018. In reality, more than 7,000 local and national titles were still in print that year.

Even today, newspapers and magazines worldwide generate more than 70 percent of their circulation and advertising revenue from print editions. New print titles are also emerging, often evolving from digital projects.

What’s more, some outlets that went fully digital have later returned to print: the satirical magazine The Onion as well as Newsweek in the U.S., and the music magazine NME in Britain. The latter returned with a redesigned, high-quality print edition a few years later. A comeback like that is not entirely out of the question – even for taz.