LOUISVILLE, Ky. –
Old-fashioned journalism
will not become obsolete in
the Internet age, but
newspapers themselves will
have to change or might not
fare as well, a panel of
media experts said Saturday.
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"At some point in the
current generation, more
people will get their news
from the Internet than from
newspapers," said S.W.
Papert III, chairman and
chief executive officer of
Belden Associates, a
newspaper research and
consulting firm in Dallas.
"We've
got to deliver the news the
way readers want it,"
Papert warned on a panel
examining the future of
newspapers at the Associated
Press Managing Editors
conference in Louisville.
"If we don't meet their
demands, then we're
dead."
Perhaps
that means more news flashed
on cell phones and
wristwatches and projected
on walls in public
buildings, he said.
The
print industry must become
more responsive to readers,
offering relevant news that
is insightful, compelling
and, most of all, fast, said
Alan Nelson, co-founder of
The Command Post, an
Internet blog. So much
information is available
online that journalists must
offer information that
readers want, he noted.
"Journalism
is changing forever because
of the Internet,"
Nelson said. "The
Internet has shifted the
balance of power to the
customer away from the
seller."
Nelson
said that means newspapers
have to determine what
information readers want and
deliver it to them in the
format they prefer. While
readers can get world and
national news in many
places, local news, he said,
will always be in demand.
"In
the new economy, the fast
win," he said. "In
the new economy, the fast
consumes the slow. If it's
going to be relevant, it has
to be fast."
Papert
warned that the shift won't
be painless, but said
foot-dragging by newspaper
executives would be
ill-advised.
"For
about 30 years, our readers
have been voting for change
with declining
readership," he said.
"The only risk is not
changing significantly, and
we have to do it
quickly."
Papert
said all that anyone can
predict with certainty is
that major changes are
coming to the newspaper
industry.
"The
great thing about predicting
the future is no one knows
whether you're right or
wrong at this point,"
he said.
The
four-day APME conference
wrapped up Saturday.
On
the Net:
APME:
www.apme.com
The
Command Post blog: www.command-post.org
