More people scroll up and down on their handheld devices to get the news and information rather than flipping the pages of a newspaper. It is simple, easy and quick. Being online automatically increases the reach of and access to information as it functions beyond the physical borders of the country and becomes available to people across the globe in a fraction of a second. Every traditional news medium has no alternatives but to adapt to the internet.
Every medium, even the television that is instantaneous and offers multimedia production, converges with the internet to keep it alive. It has changed the way people used to use media. Earlier in 1960s and 70s, television had risen as a family medium as the newspapers and radio have become more personal media.
Marshal McLuhan had noted in the mid-1960s that the advent of television heralded the retribalisation of society as people who used to sit alone at the corner of the room or in the garden to read a newspaper or book had started to gather at the drawing-room to watch the television with their family. But the internet has changed the way people watch television, they use their hand-held devices to access their favourite television channels or programmes. Now it is not necessary to sit in front of the TV while the programme is broadcast, you can watch it later on YouTube or OTT platforms.
Flexible medium
The shareability of information, interactivity, archival facility is the features of the online medium, while users can be guided to further explanations, follow-ups, and previous coverage via hyperlinks, which also ensures that the users will stay with the medium. It is unlimited and users can spend hours and days surfing the internet. In contrast, newspapers are slow, incomplete and limited. For example, in the immediate aftermath of the devastating earthquake in 2015 and during the Indian border blockade to Nepal in 2015/16, most of the newspapers reduced their pages.
Similarly, during the first lockdown announced to save people from the global COVID-19 pandemic, many newspapers halted their print editions while the online versions were running smoothly as the reporters and editors could write and prepare stories from their own homes. A few of them are closed forever.
In this way, printed media shied away from their responsibility of informing the masses when there was the need to disseminate information the most. But convergence to the internet helped many to stay alive, for example, some of the dailies from outside the Kathmandu Valley, collected the news, prepared them, and designed the pages as well they did not publish it rather distributed the designed pdf pages to their readers online.
Newspapers have a challenge distributing their physical copies. Many readers terminated their newspaper subscriptions during the first lockdown in 2020. Likewise, the cost and human resources needed to produce the newspapers is astonishingly high compared to internet publishing. Publishing a newspaper is a complex process with people working throughout the night to make sure that the paper reaches its readers early in the morning. However, there are multiple occasions when it does not reach the readers in time.
First broadsheet
The Rising Nepal is the first English broadsheet daily newspaper in the country with a history of more than five-and-a-half decades for publication. It is a sister publication of the first newspaper of Nepal, Gorkhapatra daily, which is in publication for the last 121 years and is one of the longest surviving newspapers in the region. It has witnessed political, social and economic changes in the country and recorded the history of both the rulers and people. It is one of the early adopters of the internet and was one of the first newspapers to be available online.
The newspaper should not delay in adopting the digital tools and having a user-friendly web portal that fits the mobile environment. Spaces should be created to facilitate public discussion and interaction on the issues of social concern.
It may also provide information for news or angles to create one. Such interaction forums should be different and advanced than the ones on Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social networking sites. If we begin to address/listen to the readers' concerns, The Rising Nepal will have their ownership. Public concerns can also be presented in the form of vox-pop.
Last battle
Newspapers are fighting their last battle with the internet. The battle is fiercer than with the one it had with the television. One of the most effective tools is media convergence and promotion of multimedia related to the print version of the news stories. Links of such materials can be presented in print versions, in the form of a web link or QR Code. Audio and video clips of the event or news source could be uploaded online to add extra credibility to the story.
So far as the issues for the coverage are concerned, culture, society and development are the areas that are downplayed in other media. TRN can create a niche in the market by highlighting these issues. Likewise, although it is an English medium and targets foreign nationals in Nepal, professionals, tourists, expatriates and youth (primarily college students), it must be local in terms of content creation.
International and national issues are also the priority areas for many other media in the country. It is difficult to create a content identity in a country like Nepal where there are more than 3,000 online news portals, 850 newspapers and magazines, 800 FM radios and about 150 TV channels.
Likewise, TRN has so far offered plain news information. It must give priority to infographics to simplify information and attract more young readers. Breaking the traditional style/structure and rules of news writing is also the need of the day. There should be more human interest elements in the news with in-depth coverage, explanation and description.
Increase social media presence
Although the print versions of the daily newspapers have a short lifespan from now, there certainly are some alternatives to their survival.
Increasing the social media presence of the medium will help in the promotion of the newspaper and its online version. At the same time, it will also hold the readers. Therefore, the paper should have a dedicated team to operate social media accounts, at least on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram. Social media has another plus point, they are good platforms for marketing and content promotion.
Long-form is the next alternative for the survival of print media. Since most of the issues and events are covered and reported multiple times a day, events reporting is no longer a domain for the daily newspapers that come out the next morning. TRN should regularly present a couple of exclusive stories – interpretative or analytical – every day to keep its readers with it. Teasers of such stories could be promoted through online and social media accounts. But if the paper decides to do this task, it needs to expand its human resource base since it has been understaffed for quite some time.
After having all these facilities, enhanced connections between the print version and online version of the medium should be created to increase the readership. Then TRN can launch an online subscription. Coupons for an online subscription can be offered in the print edition.
A premium medium
Some newspapers should be made available in the print version as a premium medium of mass communication that could be circulated to the interested groups as well as public places like airports, railway stations, hotels and restaurants.
People need or want to change their taste of reading and the pattern of information consumption for various reasons. Likewise, for some readers, reading something in papers is serious and more intrusive than going through a piece of information online.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily's special edition brought out on its 56th Anniversary on 16 December 2021.
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