Future Course For Newspapers

The top administrative officer of one of the largest publishers in Nepal said a couple of years ago that the company has largely failed to sell the space in its newspaper, and they have to offer discounted or free-of-cost promotion in the company’s digital platforms and radio station to attract the advertisers to the print version of the newspaper, which is among the most popular print media here. The publication has been forced to cut down the print copies of the newspaper by three-fourths while the number of pages has been halved in a decade.

This is a global trend that can be gauged from the fall in the circulation of Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest-selling daily newspapers published in Japan. The newspaper's circulation went down from 7 million copies a day in 2015 to 4.68 million in 2021—a loss of 2.32 million subscriptions.

The Digital News Report 2022, a Reuters Institute initiative, found that social media has overtaken the news websites or apps as the main news source for 18-24-year-olds over a 7-year period from 2015 to 2022. News media was the main source of news for about 40 per cent of them in 2015, but it came down to 34 per cent in 2022, while social media climbed to 39 per cent from about 22 per cent.

About 300 students from the first semester of their bachelor's degree, pursuing various disciplines in Kathmandu, said that they haven’t read any daily or weekly newspapers, listened to radio news bulletins, or watched a television news show in the past three months. Most of them got the updates from the social media platforms of popular media or social media, like Routine of Nepal Banda, which they call RONB, and got the news directly from the sources like Nepal Police, their favourite political leaders, and organisations.

For example, the mayor of Kathmandu Metropolis, Balendra Shah, has 2.2 million followers; Nepal Police has 1.8 million, and leaders like Gagan Thapa, KP Sharma Oli, and Rabi Lamichhane have more than 500,000 followers on Facebook. Gagan Thapa has more than 1.2 million followers on X (formerly Twitter), and former Miss Nepal Shrinkhala Khatiwada has 2 million followers on Instagram. Artistes like Rekha Thapa, Priyanka Karki, and Anmol KC have more than three, two, and one million followers, respectively. These stories tell how serious the situation is. The rise of the smartphone has changed how society consumes news, impacting traditional media platforms like radio and television around the globe. 

While legacy media around the world are applying various innovations and reforms in their news organisations, newsrooms, and content creation, Nepali media seems rather indifferent towards the changing trend and news consumption pattern. A couple of internet-based media have been experimenting with the latest trend of multimedia content creation with short videos, reels, or shorts.

  Audience behaviour

It seems that most of the media are largely ignorant about the latest trends in the behavioural changes in the consumers of the news information, while a small section of it has realised the urgency and begun to form social media teams and work on search engine optimisation (SEO) and social media boosting. This kind of awareness is seen in media like Kantipur, Onlinekhabar, Setopati, and Himalaya TV. The Nepali media industry lacks research and development initiatives to suggest they follow the latest trend and cater to their audience better.

Meanwhile, state-funded media have not given a thought to cashing in on the social media potentials, attracting the young audiences, and expanding the consumer base for their publications or broadcasts. They don't have any social media department, promotional team, or multimedia professionals that solely work to create content targeting the youth. For this, the online editorial team or social media managers should include professionals who are 'digital native' or 'social native.' Some experts even suggest that media should hire influencers.

Just to take an example, Yuba Manch monthly, the only magazine and a sister publication of The Rising Nepal daily published by the Gorkhapatra Corporation, doesn't have a separate web portal, let alone any social media presence or practice. The publication posts the .pdf files of the magazine online every month. This is the entire new media practice of the youth monthly. Children's magazine Muna and literary magazine Madhupark monthlies are also facing the same fate. Despite having a monopoly in the market in their respective media segment, they don't look like reaping the available benefits and maintaining the status quo they enjoyed about a couple of decades ago. Even the dailies don't have social media accounts that remain active 24/7.

Although the future course of the newspapers could be projected with the available research and market trend, Republica Daily, which ceased its publication since the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, has resumed its print version recently, although it's just a 4-page daily.

However, a couple of newspapers might survive in the digital age if they adopted a hybrid model to cater to the audiences through the digital media and traditional print copies. To ensure their survival, print newspapers should make sure that newspapers are made available at public places, cafes, and gym halls so that people seeking solace from the screen or technology fatigue can use them.

 Reach out to youth 

It is interesting to see that even the social media platforms like Facebook and X have lost their appeal to the digital natives, and the latter have increasingly shifted to Instagram and TikTok. In seven years, from 2015 to 2022, the number of youth obtaining news from Facebook has gone down to 19 per cent from about 40 per cent. It can be said that these findings can't be fully applied in the media market scenario in Nepal because Reuters had conducted the study in 12 developed markets, including the UK, USA, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Brazil, and Japan. But the way youngsters are being educated, exposed to the latest technology, and have global exposure through various channels of communication is almost identical, be it in a developed nation or the least developed country.

Therefore, the legacy media should devise a strategy to win the hearts of high school students so that they start reading newspapers and magazines. It is imperative that the newspapers and books survive in order to maintain the diversity and variety of media.

A trend of remaining disconnected from the internet connection, within a small group, especially in developed countries, has also been started of late. This can also be an opportunity for the legacy media to make penetration in those segments or prepare themselves for it.

 Invest in research 

A good lesson can be learnt from The New York Times or newspapers in Japan, which have given priority to analysing customer data to create content of readers' choice, focus on digital subscriptions, and devise strategies to cater to the different needs of varieties of audiences. Though it sounds challenging, same-day delivery of print newspapers, as practiced by some Japanese dailies, can give some respite to the print media. Regional and local media can exclusively focus on community matters and people to maintain and solidify their presence.

Meanwhile, the pervasiveness of digital media and the use of AI in content generation have created a menace of misinformation and disinformation. The legacy media, with their adherence to better gatekeeping, credibility, and integrity, can leverage their brand credibility in positioning themselves in the market. However, they mustn't shy away from the digital-first strategy. Equally important is storytelling. How do you tell a story that is more important now than what you tell to your audience?

Investing in journalism across platforms ranging from print editions to social media outlets could be the best solution, probably. Most of the research has also suggested this. Solidifying the presence and performance across multiple platforms can boost the interest of the audience in alternative channels of the same media. The sooner the legacy media recognise that youth, or digital natives, get news from online aggregators, social media, and video networks, the better they can find a way to survive and perform better in the competitive markets.

(Dhakal is a journalist at The Rising Nepal.)