World Media Summit: No threat to newspapers

2009
By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad, Dec 3: Juan Senor, vice-president of International Media Consulting Group, on Thursday felt that journalists should act as "journANALYST" to keep the newspaper industry alive in the 21st century.
Participating in a discussion on the 2009 global report on innovations in newspapers, at the world press summit here, Juan Senor said in an age of scrappy messages and information saturation, people want editorial criteria. "We need to go from journalist to journANALYST," he said.
Juan Senor predicted that paper will always be around. Although it will never die, the business models and the content propositions have changed. "Complacency is the biggest threat to newspapers. What we're putting in these front pages is not relevant."
Stating that publications are repeating the same headlines on front pages and it is redundant, he said "we need to have different ideas. People don't want subtle redesigns, they want a radical transformation. Newspapers need to become 'newzines.' "
He said internet will not kill newspapers. Paper should be premium while online and mobile news should be mass medium. No one medium has ever killed another medium. The internet will not kill newspapers. The circulation of print would lower, but publishers would need to charge more for it.
The industry has received wake up calls but they have hit the snooze button every time, said Senor. The newspapers are left with few options. A new model needs to be found for newspapers to recover.