Newspapers must improve, or go online

Yesterday the participants got as homework to read and analyze and reflect on a speech by Rupert Murdoch given to American newspaper editors in 2005. Murdoch’s prophetic speech more than six years back was about the increased use of the internet, especially among the younger generation in the USA, and the consequences this would have on the newspaper industry over there and later also elsewhere. As many readers surely know, Rupert Murdoch is a famous media mogul, the chief executive of News Corporation, and one of the biggest individual media owners in the world. (Photo on the right by World Economic Forum)

Some participants have come back with really good reviews and commentaries.

Here’s Eleuter Mbilinyi’s compact and comprehensive review about Murdoch’s speech. He quotes Murdoch saying that in 1964 four out of five Americans were reading a newspaper every day, while 40 years later the figure had dropped to 50 percent, due to the use of the internet. “The new means of communication have an advantage of capturing people’s attention given their features of interactivity and hence doing away with the traditional dominance of some few people who decide what people should or shouldn’t get. To accommodate the situation, Murdoch suggests using the newspapers’ websites to win the hearts and the minds of the people.”

Rose Haji compares the situation in the U.S. with Tanzania, which has had a relatively large number of news outlets since the liberalization of the media in the 1990’s. But even here the circulation of many newspapers has declined, to the extent that several previously prominent papers, such as the trade union newspaper Mfanyakazi and the Catholic church newspaper Kiongozi, don’t exist anymore. According to Rose, also the ruling party newspaper Uhuru is only rarely seen in circulation. To reach her final conclusion, I recommend you read more here.

The posting of Njonjo Mfaume from the University of Dar es Salaam is so well articulated that I’m going to quote a longer passage.

“Whereas Murdoch speech was delivered and was most relevant in USA six years ago, we in Tanzania begin to see the relevance of most of what he said now.”

“Internet users increase daily in Tanzania and the bad news is the people who fast adopt the technology, the elite in major towns, are the ones who can afford buying newspapers. This simply means newspapers have to offer more or follow the readers online.”

“Now that the fiber optic cable infrastructure is spread all over Tanzania, it is likely that internet users will increase and costs will go down. Meanwhile, the businesses will start realising that most buyers are found online and thus see the need to advertise on the internet. Already blogs like Michuzi’s have attracted adverts from big and reputable companies.”

“Tanzanian newspapers’ problems are compounded by the fact that the journalism standard is incredibly low compared to levels reached by most neighbouring countries. What keeps them going is a flow of adverts through political and business connection of their owners.”

Challenges notwithstanding, the good thing according to Njonjo Mfaume is that some newspapers have become aware of the dangers ahead of them and have already prepared themselves. These include Mwananchi Communications which is nowadays regularly updating its website and has also opened a Facebook page and a Twitter account.

“For other newspapers which are oblivious of the dangers, it is time they read Murdoch’s speech, because the plunge of newspapers is a worldwide trend which is bound to happen in Tanzania as it did in the developed world.”

Now, to make things more interesting, Hikloch Ogola of Tumaini University couldn’t agree less.

“Rupert Murdoch is a typical Western media mogul whose ideas about the changing role of the newspaper industry in the age of internet perfectly meets the conditions in that part of the world but never in most African countries. It may be true that the print media in the Western world is facing stiff competition from the digital media in both news and advertisement, but in Africa issues of accessibility, computer literacy and language still give the newspaper industry an upper hand.”

“His well written speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors back in 2005 suggests that newspapers should create websites that will host different information portals that could be used by the emerging large market of youths who prefer to get news and other information through the internet. Yet, taking the case of Tanzania, the youth are not a large news market as compared to people in the 34 to 50 age bracket that also use the internet more than the younger age. Besides, this age bracket is the largest newspaper market.”

Ogola warmly supports Murdoch’s advice that print journalists and others should care much more about the views, needs and interests of their audience. But he is nevertheless sceptic that poor African newspapers companies would find the capital to invest into websites with video content and visual entertainment as suggested by Murdoch, owner of not only dozens of print newspapers in the USA, UK and Australia, but also owner of Fox Channel, Sky TV and many, many other big TV channels around the world.