Simon Jenkins is one of the most interesting mainstream commentators on his own industry, and recently addressed the enthusiasm for online publishing (Comment Three cheers for Gutenberg - and long live dead trees, Guardian, January 6, 2006), arguing that the personal computer isn't fulfilling its potential, online publishing is still immature, talk of the death of newspaper journalism is as ill-informed as it was with the coming of television news, and that newspapers "have shown that they can grasp each new technology" and adapt it accordingly.
Jenkins is right to note the ability of newspapers to adapt to the rise of new technology and "bend it to their will". And in reality, modern computers were in part adapted for the needs of newspaper publishers: for authoring, composing, editing and transmitting pages -- once quaintly referred to as 'desktop publishing'.
However, Jenkins is wrong to endorse the counterposition of new and old media. It is true that TV journalism didn't kill its print sibling, but it certainly pushed newspapers towards features and opinion (of which he is an exemplar). Neither will the Web kill print journalism, though it has already changing it significantly.
Far from being damned, print is a wonderful complement to online publishing, and to broadcast -- as the Guardian's 'Today on the Web' excerpts and Ricky Gervais podcast demonstrate. The challenge for publishers and broadcasters is to use each medium for what it does best, and to facilitate ease of movement between them. If there is a complaint to be made it is that, after ten years the Web being used for publishing, too little progress has been made in these respects.
Read on...
Under my keyboard the desk shakes. The bloggers are on the march, Simon Jenkins, The Times, March 11, 2005, and my comments on the article on Perfect.co.uk.
Comments