What are the future models for the newspaper?

Horst Pirker, the Chairman of the Board of Styria Medien (Austria) tells  how future of the newspaper relies on multi-media, multi-channel and multi-platform.

Horst Pirker started his speech with bad news for the industrie. In Germany the circulationof the daily newspapers has been declining since 1991. In US it started its drop in 1989. The marketshare of the newspapers is dropping fast as well.

But there are good news. Many newspapers fight the trend by trying to adopt to the chenging media environment. New developments appear that influence the future of the newspapers:

• digitalisation
• disintegration
• e-paper
• broadband
• hypermedium internet
• weblogs
• games
• artificial intelligence
• next generation media

New business models are created to adopt to the changing situation: hybrid models, reverse publishing, free newspapers.

Horst Pirker notes 3 possible lives of the newspapers (considering its paper platform):

1. paid newspaper model

2. hybrid models that differ among the companies, examples:

• “Manchester Evening News”, which is free in the city center (airport, hospitals), but in other areas it  costs 40p;
• “Le Matin” which is a  paid newspaper and its sister paper “Le Matin Bleu” which is free for younger target;
• “Die Welt” which as broadsheet costs 1,50 - 1,80 Euros and “Die Welt Kompakt” that in the tabloid format costs 0,70 Euro.

3. free newspaper models, examples: “La Razon” (Buenos Aires) established 1905 free from 1999; “San Francisco Examiner”, established 1865, free since 2003; “The Standard” (Hongkong) established 1949, free since 2007.

But there is also a multimedia approach - the MMM strategy: multimedia, multichannel, and multiplatform.  Multimedia means to provide the reader not only with tex and pics, but also sound and video. Multichannel means using many channels for distribution (cable, satellite, GRPS, WiFi, etc.). Multiplatform is using all the platforms available (paper, PC, Mobile devices, public screens, etc.)

Horst Pirker ended his speech with enthusiasm. Newspaper has a bright future because there are many models to succeed on paper, but also much more models to succeed online. The goal for the media companies should be how to generate profit from online initiatives, and this is the real challenge for the industry.

For more pictures from the INMA Outlook 2009 please visit its Flickr site. Do not forget to check the official conference blog written by our Austrian friends.

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