tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/independent-newspaper-8668/articlesIndependent newspaper – The Conversation2021-11-04T14:31:33Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1711222021-11-04T14:31:33Z2021-11-04T14:31:33ZWhy the handling of a false South African news report about 10 babies has set off alarm bells<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430195/original/file-20211104-19-14hcg0o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of the Independent newspaper group.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dirco/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>South African newspaper proprietor Dr <a href="https://www.independentmedia.co.za/our-people/dr-iqbal-surve/">Iqbal Survé</a> has long pushed the boundaries of credibility, but recently he crossed the line into full fantasy. Should South Africans pay any attention to Survé? And what is to be done with a rogue publisher?</p>
<p>These are the questions South Africans – particularly journalists – are asking after the owner of Sekunjalo Independent Newspaper’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hzT5B0RI5s">recent media briefing</a>.</p>
<p>Survé acquired Independent Newspapers, one of the country’s biggest and most respected newspaper groups, <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2013-08-21-sekunjalo-finalises-inmsa-purchase/">eight years ago</a>. But under his leadership, the titles have been reduced <a href="https://techcentral.co.za/south-africas-newspaper-industry-is-on-its-last-legs-2/173071/">to shadows of themselves</a>. </p>
<p>Survé called the briefing to reveal the outcome of investigations into the story his newspapers ran in June claiming that a Tshwane women had <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/pretoria-news/news/exclusive-gauteng-woman-gives-birth-to-10-children-breaks-guinness-world-record-5ba8c9e2-5cc6-49b3-8cc9-1e179fd535cd">given birth to decuplets</a>. He had promised his briefing would be “explosive” and it would implicate a number of senior people.</p>
<p>The story, written by Pretoria News editor Piet Rampedi, went viral around the world with the claim that the woman had broken all medical records by giving birth to 10 babies. The report fell apart when the newspaper could provide no evidence to back up the claim and it turned out that no-one –- not even Rampedi, or the babies’ father -– had seen them. </p>
<p>All the hospitals in the area <a href="https://theconversation.com/false-story-about-decuplets-was-a-low-point-for-journalism-how-to-fix-the-damage-163814">denied knowledge of the births</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/false-story-about-decuplets-was-a-low-point-for-journalism-how-to-fix-the-damage-163814">False story about decuplets was a low point for journalism: how to fix the damage</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Rampedi <a href="https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/independent-media-demands-health-department-come-clean-about-tembisa-decuplets-stands-by-piet-rampedi-c3dbed32-a1ae-40cf-8168-0cd9a063ec9c">stood his ground</a>, though, and Survé backed him, though he instituted a total of four different investigations: by an independent advocate, his <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-10-29-revealed-independent-medias-internal-report-on-piet-rampedis-decuplets-story-found-it-was-a-hoax-and-demanded-an-apology/">internal ombudsman</a>, his editorial team and his investigative team.</p>
<p>At the briefing, it became clear why he needed multiple investigations: it was to allow him to treat the four reports like a smorgasbord from which he could pick and choose. He ignored <a href="https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/fact-check-what-really-happened-to-the-tembisa-10-why-independent-medias-claims-just-dont-hold-up-20211028">Advocate Michael Donan’s independent investigation</a> which said that the report was irresponsible and Rampedi should face disciplinary action. </p>
<p>He also ignored his own ombudsmans’ report, which called the story <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-10-29-revealed-independent-medias-internal-report-on-piet-rampedis-decuplets-story-found-it-was-a-hoax-and-demanded-an-apology/">a “hoax”</a>.</p>
<p>Instead he went on a rambling account in which he said two of the babies had died and the others had been “trafficked” in a conspiracy involving doctors, nurses, hospitals and social workers. He produced no evidence, but said the proof would emerge in a 10-part documentary series his team were producing over the coming weeks. </p>
<p>At the centre of the conspiracy was an unnamed “Nigerian doctor” who could no longer be found.</p>
<p>If this was not the owner of what was once the country’s largest newspaper group, nobody would pay any attention to such delusion. But all of his newspaper titles echoed his account, at least <a href="https://www.enca.com/news/tembisa-10-independent-media-says-sithole-asked-give-babies-adoption">one television channel</a> carried his media briefing live and it trended on social media. Anyone who pointed out that his claims had no credibility was mocked as racist or uncaring of trafficking victims.</p>
<p>Why does any of this matter?</p>
<p>As a media practitioner and commentator for over four decades, I am of the view that Survé is systematically destroying what used to be a serious, credible set of newspapers. </p>
<h2>The destruction of a media house</h2>
<p>There are 16 titles in the Independent Group. All have seen an <a href="https://techcentral.co.za/south-africas-newspaper-industry-is-on-its-last-legs-2/173071/">almost total collapse</a> of their circulation since Survé bought out the group in 2013. </p>
<p>Most newspapers across the world have lost readers, but few have shrunk as dramatically as each of his titles: the Pretoria News only sells under 1,900 copies a day, down from 30,000; the Cape Argus is under 8,000 from a peak of nearly 80,000; the Cape Times under 9,000 from over 50,000; the Daily News 7,600; and the flagship The Star is below 15,000 when it was 220,000.</p>
<p>What used to be serious metropolitan voices are now at the scale of school news sheets.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/journalism-makes-blunders-but-still-feeds-democracy-an-insiders-view-146364">Journalism makes blunders but still feeds democracy: an insider's view</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is tragic enough, but it is clear that Survé is also undermining the credibility of journalists and news outlets in general at a time when the industry is already in deep financial pain, and struggling to rebuild its standing. </p>
<p>He is fuelling a popular cynicism towards the media, creating a situation – as we have seen elsewhere – ripe for malicious malinformation and dangerous populism.</p>
<p>Two factors seem to allow him to keep going. The first is the <a href="https://www.news24.com/fin24/economy/pic-looks-on-while-surve-inc-burns-through-state-pensioners-billions-20210127">Public Investment Corporation</a>, which invests state pensions and appears unable to stop him abusing what’s left of the 4.2 billion Rand (about US$276 million) they <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-01-22-pic-announces-blatant-violations-in-r4-3-billion-ayo-investment/">gave</a> to his <a href="https://ayotsl.com/">Ayo Technologies</a> group or to call in their rights as shareholders. He has them tied up in legal technicalities. </p>
<p>The second is that some major retail advertisers, short of regional outlets in which to promote their wares, continue to prop up these newspapers, despite their lack of audience.</p>
<p>The news media industry itself can only stand by and watch in dismay. The <a href="https://sanef.org.za/sanef-notes-report-about-reckless-irresponsible-journalism-at-pretoria-news-following-publication-of-decuplets/">South African National Editors Forum</a> pleaded with him to return to the voluntary self-regulatory industry framework, the Press Ombudsman and Council.</p>
<p>But he elected to <a href="https://www.sekunjalo.com/sekunjalo-in-the-news/independent-media-launches-ombud-office/">set up his own</a>, effectively making himself unaccountable and free to run rogue when it serves his purposes.</p>
<p>He has <a href="https://www.ru.ac.za/perspective/2013archive/thefiringofcapetimeseditorasignofthingstocome.html">driven out from his newsrooms</a> anyone who might be likely to stand up to him, and surrounded himself with sycophants and dependants. </p>
<p>A worrying development is the <a href="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-10-28-listen-gauteng-government-to-sue-independent-media-over-thembisa-10-claims/">Gauteng provincial government</a> instructing lawyers to sue him for defaming their health workers in his media briefing when he suggested doctors and nurses were involved in trafficking.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-threats-to-media-freedom-come-from-unexpected-directions-148265">New threats to media freedom come from unexpected directions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>One can understand the frustration of not being able to take the matter to the Press Council. But using state resources to sue media is a worrying, often-abused process that sets a bad precedent.</p>
<p>Freedom of speech supporters were unhappy when <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2011-06-14-another-zuma-vs-zapiro-cartoon-battle-another-outrage-in-the-wall/">President Jacob Zuma sued</a> renowned South African cartoonist Zapiro. Journalist often protest against large corporates using their resources to bully their critics through malicious court action that is costly to defend. This is a wrongful use of state resources. Other ways should be found to deal with the rogue.</p>
<p>Government suing journalists and media houses provides a tool to harass and intimidate the media, and will have a chilling effect on critical reporting.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171122/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anton Harber is a member of the SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) and executive director of the Campaign for Free Expression.</span></em></p>Using state resources to sue media for spreading fake news is not the answer, and sets a bad precedent.Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074532018-11-22T15:06:52Z2018-11-22T15:06:52ZFuture of journalism: papers must deliver value – to readers not shareholders<p>The conflict that exists within the organisations that own Britain’s newspapers, and the strategies that they employ in running their businesses, was recently brought into sharp focus. One of the key regional players, Johnston Press, went from publicly-listed administration to a <a href="https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2018/news/johnston-press-under-new-ownership-with-35m-cash-injection-and-135m-less-debt/">controversial, private rebirth</a> within 24 hours, prompting a wider debate around the state of the industry.</p>
<p>The company, which owns major regionals such as The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post as well as the nationally popular i newspaper, announced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/16/owner-of-the-scotsman-and-i-newspapers-enters-administration">on November 16</a> that it was in administration only to reveal the following day it had <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46243622">been bought out by its debtors</a> and would continue to operate as before but under the new name of JPIMedia.</p>
<p>While it undoubtedly leaves the newspaper titles in a healthier financial position for now, whether or not any optimism will be long-lasting, given the state of the UK’s print newspaper market, is a matter of some conjecture.</p>
<p>In September 2018, I made a submission to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-on-sustainable-high-quality-journalism-in-the-uk">Cairncross Review</a> – a government initiative to examine the options for securing a sustainable future for high quality journalism. The events of the past week have led me back to the following extract:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During the past decade of declining revenues, the traditional local news publishers have used a smoke and mirrors approach to mask their editorial cutbacks. News content has become more regionalised and less relevant, patch offices and receptions have been closing, while titles have continued to be branded as local. There are understandable business reasons for this happening, but these public limited companies have always had profits at their core, often prioritising their shareholders over their readers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This tension remains at the heart of many newspaper companies – and it is also a parallel to the historic and counter-intuitive decision-making that still remains when it comes to print and web content.</p>
<p>If everyone in the industry – regional or national – knew then what they know now about the challenges faced with monetising their websites through a commercial base then I’m sure the landscape would be very different. The assumption that display advertisers, classifieds, property and motors would migrate seamlessly into digital was fatally flawed because the traditional media giants did not anticipate the competition that would spring up. They had no track record of overcoming it by making their own offerings better than the rest.</p>
<p>And while they were struggling to compete online, time and cash should have been reinvested into the printed products which, while on a declining sales trend, still remain profitable and well-read by certain key demographics. </p>
<p>What the events surrounding the Johnston Press have done is to complete a jigsaw whose outline was already well-known – that the eye-watering return on sales figures pocketed during the 1990s and 2000s were part of a recipe for the mess the industry now finds itself in.</p>
<h2>Printing money</h2>
<p>So what value remains in printing traditional newspapers, as opposed to an online-only approach favoured by titles such as The Independent?</p>
<p>There is plenty of <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/06/14/abcs-uk-national-newspapers-continue-suffer-circulation-decline">evidence</a> that demonstrates the continuing demise of print. But the value of print is not purely economic in nature, and should not be placed in a silo away from the value it brings to news brands as a whole.</p>
<p>There is a negative correlation between the popularity of a newspaper and the trust the reader has in it. If you were to place the <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sun-remains-most-read-uk-newsbrand-as-new-pamco-data-shows-guardian-and-observer-most-trusted/">sales and trust rankings</a> of the main ten titles in the UK side-by-side you’d see the order turned on its head. Trust is a valuable commodity that not only gives credibility to the printed product but also pervades into the perception of the online offering of the same brand.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1065538310335070209"}"></div></p>
<p>Take the Guardian. With one of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/oct/31/guardian-rated-most-trusted-newspaper-brand-in-uk-study">highest trust ratings</a> for a national newspaper – and despite its <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03/15/newspaper-abcs-guardian-rebrand-fails-boost-print-sales">relatively low print sales</a> – it has been able to leverage that emotional attachment and use it to develop an online contribution scheme that will enable it to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2018/nov/12/katharine-viner-guardian-million-reader-funding">break even</a> by April 2019. While the printed product may appear to be in decline, it still acts as a firm foundation for the overall news brand as it seeks to evolve.</p>
<p>Newspapers also remain an integral part of the profits in many media portfolios. Within Johnston Press, the printed offshoot of The Independent, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/i-newspaper">i newspaper</a>, was the jewel in the crown, bought for £24m in 2016 and now being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/11/johnston-press-puts-itself-up-for-sale-i-newspaper-yorkshire-post">touted at a value of £60m</a>. At a regional level, concentrating resources and a focus on print remains a core and profitable component of several groups, especially those in private ownership, such as <a href="https://iliffemedia.co.uk/">Iliffe Media</a>, which owns a range of local newspapers.</p>
<h2>For the many</h2>
<p>But the perceived value of the newspaper format should not be limited to the balance sheet – there is value for the reader, too. And sometimes it takes a holistic view to fully appreciate what this consists of. While the web may be ideal for delivering bespoke content that can be accessed via search, the newspaper allows people an opportunity for a deep dive into the news – not only reading the stories they are primarily concerned with, but stumbling across material they would never have known about otherwise.</p>
<p>Stories that educate and inform them about their community, their country, their world. Curated for them by trained professionals, rather than through the vagaries of any unregulated social platform. Providing what society needs rather than what an audience wants.</p>
<p>There is a compelling argument that <a href="https://inforrm.org/2017/08/04/newspapers-how-near-is-the-end-brian-cathcart/">printed newspapers will cease to exist</a>, or may remain in existence as a niche offering. But freed from the shackles of shareholdings – and with a model that promotes a long-term sustainable future over short-term profits – there is an equally compelling argument that newspapers, and the journalism within them, can continue to be a universally valuable part of the media landscape for some time to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Bradley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is still value in newsprint, but newspaper owners need to invest in their communities or face extinction.Mark Bradley, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Journalism Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/568742016-03-26T16:55:51Z2016-03-26T16:55:51ZThe Independent’s final edition summed up all that is powerful about newsprint<p>A strong investigative front-page story alleging that a UK-based Saudi dissident <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/british-dissident-investigated-over-colonel-gaddafi-plot-to-assassinate-saudi-king-a6952756.html">was connected with a plot</a> to kill a Saudi king allowed the last print edition of The Independent to exit with the panache and impact with which it arrived some 30 years ago. </p>
<p>Also making the final front page a memorable one was the strong photographic image of Brussels commuters beating a hasty retreat from an anti-terror operation at a tram station. This caught the dour mood of a week dominated by terror. And while other papers went with a picture of a wounded terror suspect at the scene, The Independent’s choice reflected its overarching concern about the impact of world events on ordinary people.</p>
<p>The final edition gathered a number of good exclusives of significant public interest and, as usual, the preceding day’s news was well covered. Jeremy Corbyn’s speech at the teacher’s conference got a good show, if accompanied by <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-faces-labour-revolt-if-party-falls-short-in-london-mayor-and-holyrood-elections-a6952851.html">a rather doomy piece of political speculation</a> from the paper’s deputy political editor, Nigel Morris, that a “poor election showing could see Labour revolt”. </p>
<p>The Independent’s non-dogmatic approach to opinion was always what made it vital and distinct. Unlike its rivals you never knew quite what position it was about to adopt – but it was usually well thought through and often challenging. The paper was much more accepting of the Corbyn phenomenon, for example, than the Guardian, which has run with a misguided and patronising campaign by its commentariat. The Indy, always better “on the street”, caught the Corbyn zeitgeist. </p>
<p>I must admit that I did momentarily check to see whether it was April 1 for the headline of the two-page interview with Alastair Campbell, who said he found it “very difficult not to tell the truth”. It was an odd choice for a last “big interview” given Campbell’s continued refusal to accept the sheer scale of the Blair years’ catastrophe. But perhaps that is the point. Campbell does say that Blair should not have made The Independent the emblem of his “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/may/28/blair-murdoch-instruments-political-power">feral beasts</a>” speech “because the real drivers of it were Murdoch and Dacre. And he should have said that.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"713672013118849024"}"></div></p>
<p>My composure is restored with Patrick Cockburn’s disturbing account of what is going on in Baghdad. Cockburn is one of the greatest British foreign correspondents of all time – a must-read. He will fortunately remain with the new internet-only Independent. On page three, founding editor Andreas Whittam Smith summed up pithily The Independent print edition’s fatal problem: “The technology that enabled us to establish ourselves has, 30 years later, rendered the printed edition unviable.” </p>
<h2>Thing of beauty</h2>
<p>Leafing through the paper I was struck by what the internet generation is losing by the print edition’s demise. The founders decreed a paper that would be aesthetically outstanding and so it was with the last edition: an artefact of beauty, elegantly and cleanly laid out, with strong photographs and wonderful typography. </p>
<p>Coming from a pre-internet generation that was brought up on <a href="http://www.ericgill.org.uk/Gill/eric-gill-biography">Eric Gill’s typography</a>, I do wonder if the current generation will ever have the opportunity to understand the sheer beauty of type design and its intimate relationship with a page of white paper. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/116494/original/image-20160326-17838-1j7hwg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1015&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Digital strategy: Evgeny Lebedev.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yui Mok / PA Wire/Press Association Images</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My own relationship with The Independent began with a phone call from then editor Simon Kelner in the summer of 1998 inviting me to join the paper as an investigative journalist. As a Sunday newspaper journalist and TV producer it was a baptism of fire working for a daily. On the first day I had to write a hasty 1,000 words in an hour, but I did. For three years I produced investigations and more. It was a tough gig, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-independent-newspaper-dies-as-it-was-born-in-the-white-heat-of-technology-54690">but we punched above our weight</a>, as Rottweilers rather than lapdogs, biting the arses of the corrupt and complacent. </p>
<p>In 2001, I resigned to move out of London with my family. But several months later, I was called in to help the Independent on Sunday by the then deputy editor Michael Williams in the wake of 9/11. I wrote hundreds of stories in my time working for both papers. My arrangement with the cash-strapped Sunday edition lasted until 2007 when I concluded that I would probably earn more delivering the paper than writing for it. I also wanted to concentrate on my developing academic career.</p>
<h2>Grown-up journalism</h2>
<p>It wasn’t all sweetness and light working on the Independent papers. The paper did have its weaknesses other than money. In my time they did not have the visionary leadership, intellectual or public profile that Alan Rusbridger brought to the Guardian. You rarely heard an Independent editor on the broadcast news or anywhere really until very recently. Appointments seemed sometimes made on the grounds of family or social connections much to the frustration of better-qualified staff. </p>
<p>The Independent treated its readers with respect. It assumed that they were intelligent, grown up and could be swayed by reasoned discussion and argument. This was in contrast to its competitors, who so often plain pander to their reader’s worst prejudices. The Independent’s readers wanted something that was exactly that – independent – and let’s hope the website version can keep up the tradition. At this moment in time, a sense of history, tolerance and proportionality is need more than ever – and is sadly lacking in much of the surviving press.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56874/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I am part of a research group that is funded by ESRC and have been part of a research team that received a grant from Innovate UK (2014) but not on a subject area related to this article. I worked for the Independent paper for many years and most recently wrote a paid for article in January of this year. I am an affiliate member of the Labour Party and a member of two trade union (NUJ and UCU) </span></em></p>Always an underdog, the newspaper showed what imagination and rigour could bring to journalism.Paul Lashmar, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/566222016-03-21T14:52:44Z2016-03-21T14:52:44ZJournalism isn’t dying – there’s even room for optimism about print<p>On Saturday, March 26 the Independent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35561145">will publish its last edition in print</a>. The Independent on Sunday sold for the last time on March 20. The distinctive El Pais of Madrid has announced that <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-spain-media-elpais-idUKKCN0W61PD">it will take “a step from paper to digital”</a>. The Guardian with a huge online readership, shrinking print sales and sizeable losses <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/17/guardian-media-group-to-cut-250-jobs">plans to shed 250 jobs</a>, of which 100 will be journalists. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/johnston-press-starts-the-year-with-cull-of-almost-100-jobs/">Another 100 journalists are at risk</a> on newspapers and websites run by one of Britain’s largest regional groups, Johnston Press. And Fairfax Media, the venerable Australian publisher that prints the countries two biggest dailies, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/17/fairfax-media-to-shed-120-journalists-in-attempt-to-slash-costs">announced plans to cut another 120 editorial jobs</a> at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the seventh round of redundancies since 2004. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"710271096184905729"}"></div></p>
<p>Do these developments signal that print journalism, after ailing for two decades, is dying at last? The answer is no: journalism is not dying. It is not even dying in print.</p>
<p>Newspapers do fail and people lose their livelihoods. But papers are extraordinarily hard to kill. Millionaires, whose methods in any other business are unsentimental and ruthless, preserve them because they think they bring influence and prestige. Even if falling circulations and reputations dilute the influence, newspaper ownership guarantees political access. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D1W38tCrYAMC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=us+newspaper+closures+1960s+radio+television&source=bl&ots=QoyT_pGF56&sig=EnUi7mtDkPGdu7__phoWa6KSJOs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ8fGjwdHLAhWLVhoKHYcDCtwQ6AEIRDAG#v=onepage&q=us%20newspaper%20closures%201960s%20radio%20television&f=false">More newspapers died in the US around the early 1960s</a>, when television was becoming a mass medium and seizing advertising, than have been extinguished by the arrival of the internet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"711841539325095936"}"></div></p>
<p>When an industry is in decline, the turbulence will throw up opportunities. The Independent started i, which <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/deal-done-johnston-press-buys-i-newspaper-but-independent-set-to-close/">its owners recently sold</a> to Johnston Press. Trinity Mirror has <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-readers-rise-to-greet-the-new-day-heres-what-i-thought-of-britains-new-paper-55529">just launched a national paper</a>, New Day.</p>
<h2>Downward trend</h2>
<p>But these are exceptions to a long, steady trend and it is not towards the extinction of print. The remorseless change is the threat to the business model of daily, general-interest printed news. Specialist newspapers such as the <a href="http://aboutus.ft.com/corporate-information/ft-company/">Financial Times</a> and <a href="http://www.economistgroup.com/our_news/press_releases/2015/the_economist_group_posts_p60m_profit_circulation_remains_robust.html">The Economist</a>, many of whose readers charge their subscriptions to their employers, are <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/current-affairs-magazine-abcs-2015-spectator-new-statesman-private-eye-and-economist-all-grow">not facing the same red ink in their accounts</a>. Magazines rise and fall – but survive better. </p>
<p>Advertisers and readers <a href="https://www.themediabriefing.com/article/datawatch-circulation-decline-developing-economies">have gradually deserted daily papers</a> across the western world. Even where circulations appear to have held up, profitability has not. Even countries such as <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/circulation-declines-hit-german-papers-a-decade-after-america-a-915574.html">Germany</a> or <a href="http://mediaauditfinland.fi/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Circulations2013.pdf">Finland</a>, where this downward trend worked more slowly, are not exempt. Even countries such as <a href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1808431/internet-now-subsidising-struggling-newspapers">China</a>, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/india-ink-newspapers-boom-where-the-internet-doesnt-reach-1441740780">India</a> or <a href="http://latinlink.usmediaconsulting.com/2013/03/online-vs-offline-which-rules-in-brazil/">Brazil</a>, where print circulations were expanding at the turn of the millennium, can see that print will soon be second to online as a news medium. </p>
<p>Loved, hated and respected as newspapers have been, these histories and feelings cannot undo the simple reality they are a cumbersome and expensive way to transmit fact and opinion when anyone with a smartphone can summon them with a thumb.</p>
<p>Look historically at Britain’s national press and you can see that its dominance was surprisingly brief. Cheap, national papers with large circulations really only took hold at the start of the 20th century. Their total circulations <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EWp2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=uk+newspaper+circulation+peaked+between+1950+and+1955&source=bl&ots=5pAkd9LFjl&sig=QFamwV2aCg9TJiMVbzaJpcHI7DY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvgbChxdHLAhXF_nIKHVXgAgQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=uk%20newspaper%20circulation%20peaked%20between%201950%20and%201955&f=false">peaked between 1950 and 1955</a>. The Daily Mirror hit its highest circulation many years ago, in 1966. The late 20th century was an exceptional period for news: both print and broadcast enjoyed steady income.</p>
<h2>Death and rebirth</h2>
<p>Journalists are understandably gloomy about what is happening now. But the volatile sequences of publishers experimenting with something new, failing and then trying again would have been entirely familiar to journalists of the 18th or 19th centuries. Did Charles Dickens sit in a panelled office in a single, steady newspaper job all his life while writing novels on the side? He did not: <a href="http://www.dickensfellowship.org/dickens-journalist">he joined or founded more than one start-up</a> and more than one failed. His writing lasted, but his businesses did not. Technology is now dragging us into the future but the experience has echoes of the past.</p>
<p>Newsrooms are more than just places of which journalists become fond. They are storehouses of knowledge, technique and values. Journalists worried that major news brands will disappear have a real concern: that journalism’s job of “holding power to account” will be done less effectively without that accumulated experience and memory. They have been told for years not to worry. Fear not, say the digital gurus, new online <a href="https://www.divestopedia.com/definition/5114/unicorn">“unicorn” businesses</a> will rise where others have fallen. The news business often has to re-invent itself and this is one of those moments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston Globe is in the spotlight for its investigative reporting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Fischer CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a description of history’s trajectory, this optimistic prediction will probably turn out to be right. As I found when researching my book, <a href="http://blog.wan-ifra.org/2013/09/23/george-brocks-out-of-print-newspapers-journalism-and-the-business-of-news-in-the-digital-">Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age</a>, the need for accurate and reliably independent information is deeply embedded in the elites of developed societies and those communities will eventually solve the business problems which currently afflict the production of news. I can even see that recovery starting in the recovery of investigative journalism (both in start-ups and inside mainstream newsrooms), the outstanding online analysis of the European migration crisis or the rise of Donald Trump and the energetic work of a <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/six-things-we-learned-about-big-news-outlets-from-a-report-on-editorial-standards/">new breed of verification sites</a>.</p>
<p>But, as the digital pundit Clay Shirky <a href="http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/">pointed out</a>, transitions are an exhausting mess if you actually have to live through them. In a deservedly famous blogpost seven years ago, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"710780034299125760"}"></div></p>
<p>The old is dying but the new has not yet been born. Reflecting on Shirky’s wisdom, Wolfgang Blau, currently at Condé Naste but with experience at the Guardian and Die Zeit, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wolfgang.blau/posts/10153988508540960">wrote recently</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sad? Yes. When a newspaper goes down, the greatest loss - beyond the immediate loss of jobs – is the disappearance of a social fabric, a true social network that had been built and nurtured over decades. Pessimistic? No, not really. Optimistic about the future of journalism? Yes. Still.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Brock is the author of Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age (Kogan Page 2013).</span></em></p>The history of newspapers has been one of adapting to prosper and now is no different.George Brock, Professor of Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547542016-02-25T14:13:14Z2016-02-25T14:13:14ZWill people club together to ensure the survival of quality journalism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111480/original/image-20160215-22563-1jzucc4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leo U</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Journalism is in an existential crisis: revenue to news organisations has fallen off a cliff over the past two decades and no clear business model is emerging to sustain news in the digital era.</em></p>
<p><em>In the latest in our series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/media-business-models">business models for the news media</a>, Caroline Cheetham and Paul Broster look at exclusive memberships.</em></p>
<p>The shock announcement that the last printed version of the Independent will be published next month was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-independent-newspaper-dies-as-it-was-born-in-the-white-heat-of-technology-54690">met with real sadness</a>. The 30-year-old newspaper has remained journalistically innovative since its launch in 1986, despite facing the increasing challenges of making print pay in a digital world. Indy co-founder, Andreas Whittam Smith, admitted it was a “painful day” but he reportedly said the printed paper was no longer economically viable: “The Independent’s journalism has never been more loved or respected but the costs cannot be sustained.”</p>
<p>And of course he is right. Our journalism and media students never come into university clutching an armful of newspapers. And the newspapers we provide in the newsroom at our high-tech MediaCityUK campus, are practically untouched. But our students – and young people generally – are arguably consuming more news and content than ever before. It simply doesn’t occur to them that they might have to pay for it. And that’s the problem for those of us who write and produce the news. If this industry doesn’t find a viable business model, the very jobs our aspiring, talented and creative students are seeking will not exist.</p>
<p>Many newspapers, including The Times, have resorted to paywalls (stablemate The Sun raised a paywall of its own but returning News UK boss Rebekah Brooks <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/30/sun-website-to-scrap-paywall">scrapped the idea</a> after little more than two years saying that the priority was to grow the paper’s audience). Others such as the Mail and <a href="http://www.themediabriefing.com/article/shift-simon-fox-trinity">Trinity Mirror</a> titles, have stuck with the advertising-led model, rationalising that the more readers they have, the more paying advertisers will be attracted. While the Mail Online has rapidly grown revenue from its site, it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/21/mail-online-dmgt">has not offset losses from the decline in print advertising</a> as the circulation of its printed papers continues to decline.</p>
<p>The Guardian has been the most proactive of the UK’s newspaper groups when it comes to experiments with alternative future models. Under longtime editor Alan Rusbridger the paper was a steadfast opponent of paywalls, preferring to champion the notion of “open journalism”. And, editorially at least, it has led the way: the paper was a pioneer of the “digital first” approach, publishing first to its site then in the printed form the following morning. In terms of readership this has paid dividends – the <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2015/pew-report-portends-difficult-digital-slog-for-newspapers/340733/">Guardian is second most visited newspaper site in Britain</a> – just behind the Mail – and is in the top five most-read newspaper websites in the world.</p>
<p>But the Guardian’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/12152763/Guardian-braces-for-job-cuts-as-it-looks-to-slash-costs-by-20pc.html">business model is failing</a>. Early this year the Guardian announced it would be making cuts of 20% – around £50m – in an attempt to break even within three years. Executives admitted that annual operating costs had reached £268m, up 23% over a five-year period, compared with a 10% growth in revenues. It’s likely around 100 jobs could go in this round of cuts. The would follow more than 70 editorial jobs which were cut in 2012 to offset a pre-tax loss of £75.6m.</p>
<h2>Friends with benefits</h2>
<p>So how does the paper resolve the dilemma of providing innovative content for free, while continuing to survive as a business? <a href="https://membership.theguardian.com/">Persuading its readers to become Guardian members</a> could be the answer. The Guardian insists the scheme is not simply a paywall by another name. Day-to-day content will remain free online but members, paying between £15 to £60 a month, will get a lot more – from specialist pieces from correspondents, to access to hundreds of Guardian Live events, which will include masterclasses and Q&A sessions with correspondents and editors. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111495/original/image-20160215-6548-nbkkfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Failed to boost the newspaper’s bottom line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Esther Vargas</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also anticipated that the membership scheme will eventually have global possibilities for the organisation, with events across the US and Australia. It relies on Guardian’s audience having a level of ownership of the paper, literally buying into its culture. And some argue that the Guardian, possibly more than any other news organisation, already has the brand loyalty to pull this off. <a href="https://twitter.com/JaspJackson">Jasper Jackson</a>, a media analyst for The Media Briefing, said: “It’s an appeal to the emotions of those who identify with the Guardian brand.” </p>
<p>The Guardian isn’t the first to try this approach. <a href="http://www.slate.com/">Slate</a>, one of the pioneers in digital-only news and media, <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/slate_plus/slate_plus/2015/04/happy_birthday_slate_plus_what_s_working_and_what_s_next_for_slate_s_membership.html">launched a similar programme</a> in April 2014. This membership offered allows loyal Slate readers a chance to actively contribute to the Slate newsroom by offering special access to writers and editors.</p>
<p><a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/">TPM</a>, another American online-only example, launched a similar scheme at the end of 2012, once again focusing on reader interest in the journalistic process and assuring all readers that this new approach <a href="https://gigaom.com/2012/10/03/talking-points-memo-and-why-membership-is-better-than-a-paywall/">was not a “paywall” and never would be</a>.</p>
<h2>Backstage passes</h2>
<p>As the new editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Katharine Viner, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-blanchard/what-does-katharine-viners-appointment-mean_b_6956954.html">said recently</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>New techniques mean readers can share expertise, help us find stories and make decisions. We host big communities and engaging conversations, whether below the line, with our professional audiences such as teachers, or between Guardian members at live events - we should build on these relationships and invite readers into our journalism at an early stage.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ultimately, The Guardian’s new membership scheme represents a business model for media brands that have built up a loyal community of interest around their content. Whether it will be the model that solves the digital problem for news producers, is yet to be seen.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"698209243418255360"}"></div></p>
<p>So while the demise of the printed Independent is a sad day, many will also say it was inevitable – and it is a matter of time before other mastheads follow in the same way. As the Indy’s owner Evgeny Lebedev acknowledged in a letter to his staff:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The newspaper industry is changing, and that change is being driven by readers. They’re showing us that the future is digital.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We’ll have to wait and hope that this digital future is sustainable – the alternatives are too ghastly to contemplate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54754/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Guardian is hoping the membership model for newspapers will help it survive.Caroline Cheetham, Lecturer and Visiting Fellow in Journalism, University of SalfordPaul Broster, Director of Journalism, University of SalfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/549092016-02-17T12:24:34Z2016-02-17T12:24:34ZLebedev is right to stop printing the Indy – the future of journalism is digital<p>More bad news for those remaining staff at The Independent who don’t command instant name recognition or six-figure salaries. Up to 100 of the newspaper’s unsung heroes – a group presumably comprising mainly those who struggle to design and produce the print version – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/16/independent-closes-print-titles-national-union-journalists">will be looking for work</a> after March 26. </p>
<p>The journalists’ anger is mainly aimed at the Independent’s chairman, Evgeny Lebedev. But if you look at <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/12/independent-closure-evgeny-lebedevs-letter-to-staff">his announcement to his staff</a>, it’s hard to disagree with his conclusion that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We faced a choice: manage the continued decline of print, or convert the digital foundation we’ve built into a sustainable, profitable future.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As far as printed news goes, the writing has been on the wall for some time. There have, of course, been false alarms in the past – predictions of the demise of print were common as cinema, radio and TV gained in popularity. Those proved to be premature. But now, more than a century later, the internet is posing a more potent threat by far and those predictions look to be finally coming true.</p>
<p>In 2008, during his speech at the opening ceremony of the 61st World Newspaper Congress, the then president of the World Association of Newspapers and chief executive of Independent News and Media, Gavin O’Reilly, called the imminent decline of print “<a href="https://blogs.journalism.co.uk/2008/06/02/wan-2008-the-imminent-demise-of-print-is-sheer-nonsense/">sheer nonsense</a>” – but within two years his family had sold the Independent titles for £1 to the Lebedevs, so he must have had an inkling.</p>
<p>This constant state of denial – in which most print media proprietors are trapped – not only clashes with modes of consumption that are ultimately driven by audiences themselves, but also interferes with a natural progression that is necessary for newspapers to thrive in an age of digital dominance.</p>
<h2>Building a digital foundation</h2>
<p>As the popularity of online news aggregators grows, newspapers have had to adapt to a fast-changing media ecosystem in which attention is no longer traded for advertisement revenue but, as media futurist Gerd Leonhard puts it, <a href="http://netlawmedia.com/news/netlaw-media/data-is-the-new-oil-and-publicy-is-the-new-default-by-gerd-leonhard/">personal data has become the new oil</a>. Companies such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, General Electric or IBM have made it clear that data, together with cloud computing and AI, are currently very lucrative areas for business development. The growth of BuzzFeed as a news provider also suggests that a shift from legacy attitudes to an understanding of native online practices such as sharing, virality, ubiquity and connectivity is critical in today’s news media market.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kCES2VJoU6g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Notably, whether they openly acknowledge it or not, print media has been steadily transitioning to a digital mindset in the background. As the Guardian’s digital-guru-turned-academic, Emily Bell, remarks: for a profession that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/silicon-valley-journalism-chris-hughes-new-republic-buzzfeed">hates being disrupted</a>, professional newsrooms have experienced their fair share of change in the past couple of decades. Editorial decision-making has become <a href="http://towcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Tow-Center-Data-Driven-Journalism.pdf">increasingly informed by web metrics</a> and data journalism units are being established to combine scientific rigour and the power of computer processing to offer new, interactive and engaging informational experiences to users. Coders and programmers are sharing bylines with journalists in <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article1662826.ece">co-authored</a> pieces. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2014.985497">Artificial Intelligence is permeating the news production workflow</a>. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/garrett-goodman/a-lesson-in-metrics-how-bleacher-report-gamified-journalism-for-13-billion-monthly-page-views_b_5465689.html">Gamification is used</a> to boost competition among fellow journalists and a system of badges is linked to incentives and bonuses. Companies such as the New York Times are <a href="http://nytlabs.com/blog/2015/07/27/job-creative-technologist/">hiring data scientists as Creative Technologists</a> to foresee and develop the technology the newspaper will be using in five years time. Brand-new practices such as <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2013/how-sensor-journalism-can-help-us-create-data-improve-our-storytelling/210558/">sensor journalism</a> – the use of sensors to generate bespoke data-driven news exclusives, especially for hyper local issues such as air or noise pollution – or <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2016/why-2016-could-be-a-breakout-year-for-drone-journalism/390386/">drone journalism</a> promise to spearhead journalistic innovation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111774/original/image-20160217-19239-ofjhm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Put the notebook away: the Phantom is the digital journalist’s best friend.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marco Verch via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But perhaps the most significant transformation that the shift from print to digital can bring is the development of new business opportunities associated with a digital-only newspaper. Companies such as <a href="https://storyful.com/">Storyful</a> verify and curate amateur content and act as intermediaries between content creators and media outlets. Similarly, <a href="http://www.newzulu.com/">Newzulu International</a> operates as an online news agency with a community of more than 100,000 professional and citizen journalists around the world. The content is curated by Newzulu’s editors and then licensed to more than 7,000 media outlets worldwide, which enables the company to pay both its editors and contributors.</p>
<h2>Does the virtual sphere need a digital-only press?</h2>
<p>With news content made openly available by many newspapers, and paywalls that are easy to bypass, instead of paying the cover or subscription price of a daily newspaper, news consumers tend to prefer a Twitter list with their preferred news sources, or a mobile news aggregator app, in order to get a fully personalised news diet.</p>
<p>As the habits of news users change, so does the nature of public deliberation. If Twitter were to count as an indicator for public opinion, the result of the Scottish Referendum would have been quite different – reflecting the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-25642809">overwhelming dominance of the Yes campaign</a> on the platform. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111765/original/image-20160217-24635-6ezuoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where you will go to find newspapers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newseum</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Interestingly, as the demographic that supported the Yes campaign on Twitter moves to a position of electoral influence, digital deliberation will also move to a position of economic power that, in a near future, potentially can sway the news agenda and public opinion. When that day comes, perhaps printed newspapers will be an archaeological artefact of the past – and the surviving press will reside in a digital landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eddy Borges-Rey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Announcements of the death of print are no longer premature.Eddy Borges-Rey, Lecturer in Communications, Media and Culture , University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547862016-02-15T18:29:42Z2016-02-15T18:29:42ZThe future is digital – let’s hope the online-only Independent will be part of it<p>When it was announced that the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/12153947/The-Independent-newspaper-confirms-an-end-to-print-production.html">The Independent was to cease producing the print editions</a> of its daily and Sunday titles from March 26, the reaction of journalists and columnists to the news (and the inevitable redundancies to come as a consequence) was of course one of palpable sadness.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/the-independent-newspaper-dies-as-it-was-born-in-the-white-heat-of-technology-54690%20">On this site</a>, Jonathan Foster, a former journalist who was in at the Independent’s birth, wrote of a sequence of events which turned “the greatest Fleet Street success story of modern times into a protracted tragedy”. The political editor of the New Statesman, <a href="http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/02/12/twitter-reaction-what-industry-saying-independent-print-closure">George Eaton,</a> tweeted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"698121603964628993"}"></div></p>
<p>And then <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sad-day-us-bad-day-journalism-industry-bemoans-loss-independent-newspapers">Daily Mirror</a> associate editor Kevin Maguire wrote that he was: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>mourning loss of The Independent, a vital liberal voice in a British press dominated by Tory papers. Thoughts with good journos losing jobs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Online news site, the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2016/02/12/the-independent-closed-best-front-pages-debate_n_9217300.html????&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067">Huffington Post</a> published 11 “Independent’ Front Pages That Moved Us All And Changed The Debate” and praised the Indy on its “proud status as an ‘outsider’ newspaper, one that pushed the boundaries of design and reporting to earn itself a respected, established space on the British media scene”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"698123691062853632"}"></div></p>
<p>It took journalist and academic <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/feb/11/independent-ceasing-print-death-medium-not-message">Brian Cathcart</a> in the Guardian to remind us that, hang on, this wasn’t about complete end of a great tradition – this was about the death of a “redundant medium”. It is what journalists find out and write, and are able to tell their audiences and readers, that really matters – and we should not waste our energy lamenting dead-tree technology, wrote Cathcart.</p>
<p>This is precisely what struck me about the coverage and analysis: job losses notwithstanding, the end of the print version of The Independent was greeted as if it were the end of journalism itself. Are the likes of Robert Fisk, Patrick Cockburn, Mark Steele and Yasmin Alibhai-Brown to be silenced? We must assume not and trust the word of current editor <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20http:/www.independent.co.uk/voices/the-independent-launches-its-next-digital-chapter-a6870846.html">Amol Rajan</a> who wrote in a letter to readers that the spirit and quality of The Independent will endure.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/111537/original/image-20160215-22563-1mwzph1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=571&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amol Rajan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Independent</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But among the nostalgia and reminiscences about the Indy’s glory days was the acceptance that the decisions taken by owners ESI media were, in a business sense, entirely rational. As Rajan put it, the plain fact is that there simply aren’t enough people willing to pay for printed news. With circulations continuing to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2016/feb/11/the-independent-a-newspaper-killed-by-the-internet%20">spiral downwards</a> (daily sales of the Independent stand at around 40,000, down from the highs of 423,000 in 1990) the future of the print edition would have been one of managing further decline.</p>
<h2>Interesting times</h2>
<p>There are those who think that this is just the beginning of a process of radical change for the national newspaper industry. At least that was the view of Evgeny Lebedev, owner of ESI, who wrote in <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%C2%A0http:/www.ibtimes.co.uk/indy-closes-read-letter-esi-media-owner-evgeny-lebedev-independent-newspaper-staff-1543509">an email</a> to Independent staff that their news titles would be the first of many leading newspapers to embrace a wholly digital future, stating that the UK print newspaper market conditions meant such change was inevitable. In an interview with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/12/evgeny-lebedev-newspaper-industry-in-denial-about-print-titles">The Guardian</a> he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I genuinely believe that the future is digital and that the industry in denial … the figures speak for themselves … The question should not be why we are doing it, but why others in the industry are not.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s a very pertinent question, one which the Guardian has itself pondered on occasion. In 2012 <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9614953/Guardian-seriously-discussing-end-to-print-edition.html">the Daily Telegraph</a> reported that Adam Freeman, then the Guardian’s commercial chief, stating the newspaper was on a “mission” to be able to stand alone as a digital-only publication. And in 2013, the <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/07/freedom-of-information">New Yorker</a> magazine quoted the (now former) editor Alan Rusbridger saying that “he could envisage a paperless Guardian in five to ten years”.</p>
<p>Well, we shall see about that but Lebedev’s views are by no means universally held. In an editorial on Saturday, <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/times-says-dejection-over-independent-closures-misplaced-print-will-co-exist-digital-long-time-come%20%C2%A0%C2%A0%20%20%C2%A0">The Times</a> assured its readers that print would continue to exist alongside the digital format “for a long time to come” going on to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Long before the digital revolution, newspapers confronted the migration of news to broadcasters. Newspapers will continue to innovate in the face of the internet revolution and it is our belief that print will co-exist with digital for a long time to come. A loss of diversity in media voices is to be regretted but there is no reason for gloom about the future of newsprint.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the Press Gazette <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/content/contrary-what-evgeny-lebedev-might-say-ten-reasons-why-death-print-not-inevitable?platform=hootsuite%20">Dominic Ponsford</a> maintained an even more optimistic tone. In a piece entitled: “Contrary to what Evgeny Lebedev might say, ten reasons why the death of print is not ‘inevitable’” Ponsford pointed to the success of children’s weekly newspaper First News which has grown its sale nearly every year since its launch in 2007 and now averages more than 76,000 copies a week. He also cited the success of the free Metro, the free NME and Lebvedev’s own free London Evening Standard. As Ponsford rightly iterates, it’s not getting people to read print that’s the problem: it’s getting them to pay for it.</p>
<p>There’s the rub. Who is now going to pay for the news The Independent will produce? Lebedev has the answer: “The Independent will now offer advertisers access to the world’s largest commercial platform for truly independent journalism.”</p>
<h2>Sane and salient</h2>
<p>While we wait to see how that one plays out, a final detail worth noting about the demise of the printed Independent is the space it will leave on the newsstands across the country. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2016/feb/11/the-independent-a-newspaper-killed-by-the-internet%20.">Jane Martinson</a> argued, the lack of its physical presence raises issues about media plurality in a market dominated by right-wing titles.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"697639722097758208"}"></div></p>
<p>The Independent is rare pro-EU voice in a anti-Brussels maelstrom and the fact is that three months before the referendum, we will no longer be able enter shops and see its often sane and salient front pages sitting next to the Sun and Daily Mail. That is a real shame.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The loss of the printed Independent will leave a big hole on the nation’s newstands.John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/547612016-02-15T11:09:21Z2016-02-15T11:09:21ZThe Independent newspaper closure: Editor’s blog special<p>My first few days at The Independent in 2004 didn’t go so well. I quit after two weeks. Fortunately I changed my mind, stuck around, and over the subsequent five years worked there in a variety of editorial roles with many superb, innovative journalists who remain close friends.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking of them in recent days – especially those still at the titles – as it has been announced that The Independent and The Independent on Sunday are to cease publishing in print next month.</p>
<p>It is probably inevitable that those of us who worked there feel somewhat melancholic. Former Indy reporter Jonathan Foster, now of the University of Sheffield, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-independent-newspaper-dies-as-it-was-born-in-the-white-heat-of-technology-54690">marks the moment here</a> by reflecting on the launch and early years of what was a ground-breaking product.</p>
<p>But does the end of the Indy in print really matter more widely? After all, the paper published today looks very different to that Foster helped launch in 1986. Its circulation is now 40,000. It has already gone through near-annual rounds of cost cutting that have taken out many specialist reporters.</p>
<p>We’ll have more content this week from some of the sharpest minds looking at what the Indy tremors mean alongside broader shifts in the international media’s tectonic plates. It is worth pointing out that the influence of a newspaper in the UK still stretches way beyond its immediate readership. Other media look to print titles – and a key indication of that is the plethora of “newspaper review” slots on television and radio. It has seemed preposterous for some time that these have not evolved to take on board new media outlets such at The Conversation. Perhaps with The Independent now as a digital-only brand the broadcasters will update their review shows.</p>
<p>But one other pressing matter will immediately highlight the lack of the Indy as a printed banner of free thought. This week the details of a deal regarding Britain’s future in Europe will be unveiled. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/brexit-fear-wont-win-over-undecided-voters-54661">referendum on UK membership</a> of the EU will follow. The Independent’s bold front pages would have provided a different take on that to most of the offerings from a largely Europhobic Fleet St. It’s hard not to think that the debate will be somewhat poorer for their absence.</p>
<p>And it is a lack of plurality in the UK mainstream media that will continue to be of concern to many people. That is an issue at the very heart of this project. We at The Conversation do not seek to project our own views or opinions. But we do exist to ensure that informed voices rooted in academic excellence are heard, and made available to the public to enhance understanding and inspire better democracy. If that is something you feel strongly about, do tell others about The Conversation. Encourage them to sign up for the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletter">free daily newsletter</a>, and help important, intelligent, independent journalism thrive.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
My first few days at The Independent in 2004 didn’t go so well. I quit after two weeks. Fortunately I changed my mind, stuck around, and over the subsequent five years worked there in a variety of editorial…Stephen Khan, Global Executive Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/546902016-02-12T18:17:26Z2016-02-12T18:17:26ZThe Independent newspaper dies as it was born – in the white heat of technology<p>Sunday, bloody Sunday: things began to go wrong for The Independent when the decision was made in 1990 to publish a Sunday edition. From the outset, it haemorrhaged money. And Murdoch, bloody Murdoch dealt a second debilitating blow when he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/14/business/murdoch-led-newspaper-war-threatens-to-crush-britain-s-independent.html">cut the price of competitor The Times</a>. Revenue evaporated, and the Indy titles never truly recovered.</p>
<p>Perhaps the British media’s most regular topic of idle speculation in recent years, the question of how long the Independent newspapers could soldier on for has been answered emphatically by the news that <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/feb/12/independent-and-independent-on-sunday-closures-confirmed">the papers are to cease printing in March</a> and become an online-only operation, with the loss of many jobs.</p>
<p>I was one of the journalists that launched the Independent in 1986 and worked there until 1995. As the dust settles, the autopsy will identify a sequence of events that turned the greatest Fleet Street success story of modern times into a protracted tragedy. </p>
<p>The Independent was perverse, smart, irreverent, sceptical – and very well written. It began without much idea of where it was going. Early news content had rather too many stories about what was “set to” happen, too much about what people said and too little about what they did. But the editors, sub editors and reporters hit their stride. They were encouraged to find stories and project vividly what was unearthed; if the Press Association news agency was covering it, then let’s take their coverage and have Indy reporters out finding unique content.</p>
<p>And they did. Tony Bevins in politics, for example. Heather Mills in home affairs. Paddy Barclay in football. John Carlin in South Africa. John Price’s news editing. Photographers were encouraged to eschew conventional picture composition. And their striking images were used imaginatively.</p>
<p>But the paper’s greatest virtue was perhaps its copy tasting, the process of decision-making about what should be published, what prominence it should be given, and what should be discarded.</p>
<p>One typically compelling splash revealed the high number of babies born in New York to mothers who were HIV-positive. It was a story that had been buried in copy filed by a news agency. But the Independent’s curiosity was aroused, the story developed and competitors were left baffled by what they had missed – just one example of the paper’s independent streak. </p>
<p>Some of the distinctive journalism that characterised the papers was lost as ownership shifted. By the mid-1990s the Mirror Group had a stake. In the early 2000s it moved to a compact (tabloid) format and more recently it launched a successful cut-price spin-off, the i, which is being <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/deal-done-johnston-press-buys-i-newspaper-but-independent-set-to-close/">sold on to to Johnston Press</a>. </p>
<p>The i was born under the Lebedevs <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/jun/12/inm-independent-lebedev-denial-gavin-oreilly">who bought the titles from Independent News & Media</a> in 2010. In recent decades there have still been traces of the paper’s original voice, but only a shadow of that early élan. </p>
<h2>Saved by Thatcher</h2>
<p>Readers responded, but slowly. One month, not long after launch, the company only narrowly found the cash to pay wages. Its saviour was probably Mrs Thatcher. Her governments polarised opinion, in Fleet Street as well as among the electorate. So the Independent’s boast of neutrality – “It is, are you?” – was suited perfectly to attract readers to its coverage of the 1987 general election.</p>
<p>Other ingredients merit mention. It was Murdoch, paradoxically, who made the Independent possible: excellent reporters and editors on The Times and The Sunday Times <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/wapping-dispute-30-years-on-how-rupert-murdoch-changed-labour-relations-and-newspapers-forever-a6826316.html">opted not to cross picket lines</a> at the paper’s union-busting printers at Wapping, and were promptly recruited by the Indy’s founders, especially editor Andreas Whittam Smith.</p>
<p>Whittam Smith, the son of an Anglican clergyman and known by his staff as “the saintly one”, was a thoughtful, slightly detached figure. For humble reporters, it was hard to discern the essence of his ability. But he created in the City Road offices an atmosphere in which staff felt they had a proprietorial and emotional stake in their paper, a compelling incentive to do what they loved to do: good, serious and (also importantly) occasionally frivolous journalism. As circulation climbed, narrowing the gap with the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and The Times, there were more reasons to be cheerful. This was the place to work on Fleet Street. </p>
<p>It was also Whittam Smith’s decision to launch the Independent on Sunday, something that puzzled those members of staff who recalled him not that long before denying any intention to enter the Sunday market. Perhaps it was an attempt to stymie the <a href="http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1990/Britain-s-Sunday-Correspondent-Newspaper-Closes-After-14-Months/id-527184f33c9d2a27dd090def4a49c2ba">Sunday Correspondent</a>, which had just launched. </p>
<p>From 1990, after Murdoch fired the first shots in the price war, energy levels dipped. The papers were never without flair, without imagination. But there were increasingly without money. But for those four or five years, it hardly seemed to matter. We were masters of the newspaper universe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Foster is a member of the National Union of Journalists.</span></em></p>The end of the Independent newspaper comes after an almost 30-year run. A former reporter, Jonathan Foster, recounts what made it so great.Jonathan Foster, Researcher in Computer Science. Formerly worked in Department of Journalism Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/415692015-05-09T14:45:57Z2015-05-09T14:45:57ZElection coverage: sweet victory or a new low for UK press?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81093/original/image-20150509-22722-1a0083j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Morning after: how the nationals covered the election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paperboy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>So that’s that, then. The pollsters got it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/polls-wrong-pre-election-results">wildly wrong</a> and the UK did not wake up on Friday to endless debates about coalitions, minority governments and who would deal with whom. Instead a startled “national” press rushed out <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%C2%A0http:/www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newspapers-go-press-late-6am-carry-surprise-election-news-front-page-round">early editions </a> which either greeted the Conservative victory with smug, euphoric glee (The Daily Mail and The Sun) or stunned resignation at the prospect of the bleak years ahead (the Daily Mirror and The Guardian).</p>
<p>Pretty much every serious political commentator had predicted days, may be even weeks of manoeuvring, right up until the exit poll landed moments after the polls closed at 10pm. Very quickly – and very eloquently — some journalists turned to analyse the unexpected. </p>
<p>In The Guardian online <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/labour-vote-party%20">Rafael Behr</a> coolly analysed the scale of the catastrophe that had befallen Labour which extended far beyond Miliband’s difficulty in performing with easy aplomb in front of a camera. In The Independent, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/election-2015-results-a-brutal-night-that-laid-bare-the-disunity-of-the-united-kingdom-10234566.html">Rosie Millard</a> reflected on a “brutal” night resulting in an SNP “tsunami” and the destruction of the Liberal Democrats.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mail in excelsis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Mail</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By Friday lunchtime the online editions of all the major titles were straining to adequately cover the continuing fall-out from what the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3072723/Ed-Miliband-resign-leading-Labour-disastrous-election-defeat.html">Daily Mail</a> accurately described as an incredible night of political drama.</p>
<p>Balls was out, Clegg had quit and Farage had failed in South Thanet. Then Miliband was gone and Cameron – enjoying his “sweetest victory” – was on his way to see the Queen. The Daily Mail was erupting with schadenfruede and triumphalism. </p>
<h2>Character assassination</h2>
<p>This was a sweet victory for the Daily Mail and The Sun which will undoubtedly and repeatedly tell us that it was them wot won it. And this is very bad news for those who us who are appalled by the character assassinations endured by Ed Miliband at the hands of the Tory press. </p>
<p>Cameron’s victory will embolden these titles to resort to such tactics again. The Sun will claim this victory as its own and the sadly iconic image of Miliband eating a bacon sandwich will be as much a feature of future election coverage as the Neil Kinnock “light bulb” image of 1992, when <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/fpage/elections/election.html">The Sun asked</a> the last person leaving Britain to “please turn out the lights”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singing from the same songsheet.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, for seasoned critics of The Sun and Daily Mail, the vindictive lies and slurs directed at Miliband during the final week of campaigning represented another occasion for them to lament a new low. After the wet bank holiday Monday and the two-day diversion of the royal baby, Wednesday saw the gloves well and truly off as far as the right wing press were concerned.</p>
<p>Headlines such those above drew widespread criticism and not solely from the traditional left-wing quarters. Having seen the papers in advance, Andrew Neil, former editor of the Sunday Times and now presenter of the BBC’s Daily Politics, tweeted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"595720878979186689"}"></div></p>
<p>Some saw a “whiff” of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/sun-front-page-antisemitic-save-our-bacon-ed-miliband">anti-Semitism on the front page</a> of Wednesday’s Sun. In the Guardian, Keith Kahn Harris wrote that Miliband could be the first Jewish-born prime minister since Disraeli and that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Damning Miliband with porcine satire seems – like the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2435751/Red-Eds-pledge-bring-socialism-homage-Marxist-father-Ralph-Miliband-says-GEOFFREY-LEVY.html">Daily Mail’s exposé</a> of his ‘Britain-hating’ Jewish émigré father – to radiate some nasty connotations.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No balance</h2>
<p>Aside from the impressionistic, research conducted by the <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20http:/www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/may/06/national-newspapers-labour-sun-daily-mail-telegraph">Media Standards Trust</a> found that The Sun had gone after Miliband in a more ferocious manner than it went after Neil Kinnock in 1992. In its analysis of leader columns from March 26 to May 3 this year their research found that 95% of the leader columns in the paper were anti-Labour compared with 79% in 1992. </p>
<p>Over the whole the period the trust examined, The Sun ran 102 leader articles considered to be anti-Labour compared with just four that were critical of the Conservatives. Similarly, Loughborough University’s <a href="http://blog.lboro.ac.uk/general-election/the-knives-are-out-in-closing-days-of-election-campaign/">Communication Research Centre</a> found that across the press, over the whole of the campaign, Labour experienced “extensive negative coverage”.</p>
<p>That we have such a Conservative (and conservative) newspaper industry is not news. But it doesn’t harm to be reminded of that fact now and gain. As Dominic Ponsford and William Turvill said in the <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-daily-newspaper-market-backs-tories-over-labour-margin-five-one">Press Gazette</a>, in this election the UK daily newspaper market backed the Tories over Labour by a margin of five to one. In terms of the Sundays, five out the 11 main newspapers backed the Tories working out at 66% of all the titles.</p>
<p>So Cameron is back in Downing Street and Miliband, the would-be scourge of Murdoch and the only party leader in generations to openly challenge the press barons, finds his career (for the time being) in tatters. And, whether or not we believe that <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20https:/theconversation.com/the-suns-snp-tory-split-shows-newspaper-endorsements-arent-what-they-used-to-be-38256">newspapers influence their readers</a> we are unlikely to see his successor behave anywhere near as pugnaciously. </p>
<p>It’s my guess that the analysts and advisers to the new leader will point to the sustained and co-ordinated negative coverage that Miliband has received and reason that therein lies part of the reason for his failure. It won’t at all matter if the evidence doesn’t support that theory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
So that’s that, then. The pollsters got it wildly wrong and the UK did not wake up on Friday to endless debates about coalitions, minority governments and who would deal with whom. Instead a startled “national…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222802014-01-22T14:14:07Z2014-01-22T14:14:07ZSell-offs and editor’s exit mark seismic shift as newspapers accelerate into digital-first era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/39666/original/v4nzq5v4-1390389600.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chill wind or bright new dawn?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zhenlang Li</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The push towards online over print was confirmed in an extraordinary 24 hours, which saw three major media groups take radical action to pursue a web-first future. </p>
<p>In the UK, Tony Gallagher, editor of the Daily Telegraph <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/21/tony-gallagher-exits-daily-telegraph-editor">left the paper</a>, while Guardian Media Group <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/lossmaking-guardian-papers-helped-by-auto-trader-sale-9075883.html">sold its stake in car classifieds brand Auto Trader</a> for a reported £500-£600m in order to secure a financial future. These changes came only days after it emerged that the Independent newspaper titles <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/16/independent-print-alexander-lebedev">were being put up for sale</a> by its owner Alexander Lebedev – leaving Rupert Murdoch’s Times as the only daily UK broadsheet currently unscathed.</p>
<p>Meanwhile in the US, former Telegraph editor and News International executive Will Lewis was <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jan/21/will-lewis-appointed-interim-ceo-of-dow-jones">named interim CEO of Dow Jones & Company</a> as part of a review of “institutional strategy”.</p>
<p>Telegraph Media Group announced that Tony Gallagher, who masterminded the MPs’ expenses story as deputy editor, was leaving the group. The paper’s assistant editor (news) Chris Evans was named acting print editor of the newspaper Monday to Friday, while Sunday Telegraph editor Ian MacGregor will now also take charge of the Saturday paper.</p>
<p>Gallagher’s departure comes after TMG appointed Jason Seiken, a former PBS executive, as “chief content officer” and editor-in-chief to focus the group more on digital content; a statement from the group said Gallagher’s departure came at the same time as the business “moves to its next phase of its digital transformation”.</p>
<p>Gallagher, a former Mail executive, had been expected to head up a print division when the group was restructured but <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jan/21/tony-gallagher-telegraphmediagroup">according to media commentator Roy Greenslade</a> there had been a “personality clash” between Gallagher and Seiken.</p>
<p>In a statement, Seiken said, “We must reinvent the way we work and move beyond simply putting news and information online and be an essential part of the audience’s lives. Our competition is no longer only newspapers and we must innovate to survive.”</p>
<p>Tweets from serving Telegraph journalists expressed shock at Gallagher’s sudden departure, and the veteran newspaper man was given a traditional “banging out” of the newsroom (when staff bang their keyboards or desks as a fellow colleague leaves their job as a mark of respect).</p>
<h2>Guardian cashes out of Autotrader</h2>
<p>Meanwhile the Guardian revealed it had sold its 50.1% share in AutoTrader owner Trader Media Group to the private equity firmer Apax Partners. The deal, subject to regulatory approval should generate around £600-700m to fund the Guardian, Observer and guardian.com website.</p>
<p>Auto Trader was seen as a cash cow that had covered the Guardian’s losses over the years. According to the Independent, those close to GMG said the sale would “transform its balance sheet” and guarantee the future of the loss-making paper for the next decade. While the Guardian website has won numerous awards for innovation, and editor Alan Rusbridger <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/guardian-news-media-digital-first-organisation">has made clear he is pursuing a “web-first” policy</a>, the Guardian and Observer newspapers made an operating loss of £31m to March 2013, <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-news-and-media-reports-boost-digital-revenue-losses-fall-lowest-level-2008">although digital revenue rose</a>.</p>
<p>“Once completed, this deal will make GMG a very well-capitalised media organisation with the financial flexibility to navigate the rapidly-changing media environment, where our flagship titles are proven pioneers of digital and print innovation,” Neil Berkett, the chair of the GMG board said.</p>
<p>And then there’s the Independent being put up for sale; founder and chairman of its publishing company Andreas Whittam Smith was authorised by owner Alexander Lebedev to seek out a buyer.</p>
<p>The Independent, which was bought for a nominal £1 fee by the Russian oligarch has continued to experience falls in circulation, although its populist version the i, which costs 20p and was introduced in 2010, has built a daily circulation of around 220,000.</p>
<p>In the US, Lex Fenwick yesterday left News Corp’s Dow Jones group after only two years in the post of chief executive and was replaced by Will Lewis as interim CEO.</p>
<p><a href="http://newscorp.com/2014/01/21/news-corp-announces-changes-at-dow-jones-company/">In a statement on the News Corp website</a>, Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp said that the company was looking towards changes “that will deliver even more value to customers”. “We will also be redoubling our efforts to develop the Wall Street Journal and its digital properties globally, which continue to serve the world’s most influential readers with the most authoritative news and analysis,” added Thomson.</p>
<p>Lewis instituted a digitally integrated newsroom at his time at the Telegraph and was given the job of Chief Creative Officer at News Corp to drive digital initiatives at the company.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22280/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenda Cooper has worked at the Independent, the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Times and was the Guardian Research Fellow 2006-7. She still contributes to the Daily Telegraph on a freelance basis. </span></em></p>The push towards online over print was confirmed in an extraordinary 24 hours, which saw three major media groups take radical action to pursue a web-first future. In the UK, Tony Gallagher, editor of…Glenda Cooper, PhD student, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.