Is news taking a back seat?
It is seen that circulation of some national dailies is showing a downward trend in America, Asia including India? Is the electronic media going to replace the print media completely in the foreseeable future?
IS THE common man not interested in the daily news now? Why is the circulation of some national dailies showing a downward trend in America, Asia including India? Is the electronic media going to replace the print media completely in the foreseeable future? Myriad questions of this nature are indeed bothering the media moguls across the globe. Nevertheless, as a journalist you don’t have to lose your sleep over these questions that make the news barons eat less protein, more carbohydrates and show the bulge around waist. If you are a cub reporter, you still have time to cross over to TV and change your pen for a dialogue delivery director's cap. You may be having more carry home cash. Never mind all that. Let us see the problems with a microscope to single out the germs and use a germicidal.
Time factor
An average citizen now spends more time in earning bread and butter for self and the family. The house that he hires at the beginning of his career is far away from the place of work. So, the travelling time to and fro is much more than what his father spent when the life was simpler and the cut-throat competition was unheard of.
Why not read the daily newspaper in the metro or the tram on way to the place of work? Ah! You must be from a rural background still enjoying the open air sleep under a neem tree. Allow me to take you to Tokyo. The security guards have to push in commuters into carriages and old niceties of not stepping on the toes of ladies are given a go by.
The London tube or the Mumbai suburban are no better. Now the news should sink in that the sale of dailies is going down, although the number of copies of print order remains unchanged to impress the big tycoons who give massive advertisement orders and pay cash. Never mind if there are too many unsold copies of the daily. These may be given to schools for children at unimaginable low price, even if they know no English. It is here that the Kabadiwala comes to rescue and buys the trash in bulk.
Idiot box steals the show
Yes, it is the TV that is the spoil sport for the newspapers. No consolation prize for guessing that it is not the TV news but the soap operas that the bored housewives love to watch in the lonely afternoons and the tired husbands on return from the office. The TV news headlines are watched by one and all but not the rest of the news.
Should the young journalists become actors for TV soap operas? Well, not a bad idea. Your employment for the next few years will be guaranteed; at least until wrinkles show on face notwithstanding a lavish application of the much touted cream.
Of course, another way of making the newspapers popular is to fudge figures and impress the financers and readers that all is well with the print media. But how long? A day will come when some disgruntled insider will let the cat out of the bag. Moral of the story is that fudging does not pay like a cooked up story.
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