It was the week that was for proclamations that made us think, question what we do and how we do it, and, then, in disbelief, accept that perhaps these things won’t come to pass as quickly as predicted.

It was also the week where we celebrated love and St. Valentine’s.

For those who love text in a story, and who would not trade the feeling of touching paper, the contact of ink on paper, as in the printed newspapers, it wasn’t a good Valenntine’s Day.

Early this week, came the announcement from The New York Times that text was becoming a thing of the past and that audio and video would be the choice of many for getting information.

On Valentine’s Day came the report that the CEO of the Times, Mark Thompson, had announced that The New York Times print products may last another 10 years. This is part of the company’s aggressive build up of its digital presence, where The Times is probably one of the most successful companies globally. The company added 157,000 new digital subscriptions in the last quarter of 2017. Revenue from digital subscriptions increased more than 51 percent in the quarter compared with a year earlier. Overall subscription revenue increased 19.2 percent.

“I believe at least 10 years is what we can see in the U.S. for our print products,” Thompson said on “Power Lunch.” He said he’d like to have the print edition “survive and thrive as long as it can,” but admitted it might face an expiration date.

Thompson added that :

“There may come a point when the economics of [the print paper] no longer make sense for us.”

The difficult art of predicting

Predicting is never easy, and, in the case of the media, which finds itself in a state of major transformation, a bit dangerous. As much as we hear about the “end of print”, it is not many publishers who publicly put an expiration date on it. As I conduct seminars, workshops and conferences around the world, the question is always there: How long do you think there will be printed newspapers? The thought of a printed edition not there one day is on every publisher’s mind. It is normal for this to happen.  And, yet, I know that the termination of print may be different for various newspapers and for geographic areas.  Asia and Latin America are likely to see printed newspapers for many years to come.  Europe and North America may see a more active move to end print, as we have already seen, including, most recently the termination of the print edition of La Presse, Montreal’s French language daily (it has replaced print with a most successful tablet edition, La Presse+).

I believe that it will not be feasible for many newspaper companies to print a daily edition Monday through Friday, but I am also a firm believer that weekend printed newspapers will find a special place with many readers who will want to disconnect from things digital and relax the way one can with a robust weekend or Sunday print edition.

Apparently, the countdown is on for The Times, based on the CEO’s statement.  A decade is a long time, but a part of me thinks that there will be some form of a printed Times beyond 10 years. As a New Yorker most of the time, I certainly hope the Sunday print edition will continue to appear at my doorstep for years to come!

I know I am not alone feeling that way.

Of related interest

https://garciamedia.com/blog/the-post-text-era-really/

https://garciamedia.com/blog/end-of-print-edition-for-montreals-la-presse/

Society of News Design New York: Celebrating 40 years

April 18-19, 2018-–Newscamp ,Augsburg,  Germany.

May 26, 2018 —Associacion Riograndense de Imprensa, Univesidad de Santa Cruz (Unisc), Brazil

June 3-6, 2018—The Seminar, San Antonio, Texas.