Interview Pt.4
HP: It seems that online news are doing very fine. Do you think that it is possible that at some point major broadsheet newspapers or even print magazines will come to the same conclusion as Crossroads back in 2006? Do you think that they will cancel the print versions and concentrate fully on the Internet presence?
There are many surveys being carried out throughout the world about the future of newspapers. Some newspapers in the US have actually already started switching to online versions only. Newsrooms are becoming increasingly integrated and journalists are asked to learn web publishing and other new media skills.
On the other hand, many of the surveys suggest that newspaper editors are not pessimistic about the future, much to the contrary, because they don’t see an online presence as a threat but as a complementary medium. Online versions offer many interesting possibilities that printed formats don’t (archive search, multimedia features, immediate interaction with readers, permanent updating etc).
The problem is that if readers migrate to online media, advertisers tend to abandon printed media and switch online as well. As a consequence printed media are seeing their profits decline.
Incidentally the future of free newspapers looks better than that of paid newspapers. There are new free printed newspapers appearing all over the world.
In the case of Crossroads, the switch online was very positive and the digital magazine seems to work much better than the printed newsletter, but maybe we would be even more successful if we had been able to keep both formats…
HP: Thank you very much for this insightful conversation and I wish you all the luck with Crossroads and its online presence.
