it was. were you?
How’s this for a prediction: Within fifteen years all traditional newspapers will be out of print.
The demise of The Independent, with its famous strapline ‘It is. Are you?’, shouldn’t come as a huge surprise as its readership had plummeted to below 10% of its 400,000 high-watershed mark. Launched thirty years ago with a curious balance of free-market economic and social liberalism, it certainly seemed well placed with regards to the public’s New Labour mind-set and it was undoubtedly one of the more forward-thinking rags – the pioneer of highly opinionated ‘viewspaper’ front pages designed to catch the eye, the first to downsize to tabloid proportions (making it easier to read whilst standing), and the originator of a cut-down, cut-price version, the i, which gained upwards of 300,000 supporters. However, having cost the Lebedev’s upwards of £65m it was only a matter of time before it was forced to fall-upon the sword of the free-market.
The simple truth is that no-one’s buying newspapers any longer. On my daily commute-crush I seldom see anyone fighting with a traditional broadsheet and the digital revolution, irrespective of any viable long-term model, has triumphed. News has relocated to the device for good, though the question of how to make money out of it remains elusive.
One generation has now grown-up without ever experiencing the smudge of printers’ ink on their thumbs and they feel no sentimental attachment whatsoever to the taking of their daily. Every next generation will follow and this is to the detriment of society. The consumption of granular, individual articles on your iPad, tablet or phone omits one essential component of life: a bit of luck, of serendipity. When reading a newspaper my eyes flit all over the page and invariably take in articles that would have otherwise passed me by. I am wiser for the experience. Online, I subscribe for only the relevant and finding pieces not deemed thus remain unread in the digital ether. A sad day for me and a sad day for all of us.
Stands back from the keyboard in amtaemenz! Thanks!
powerful post this month, jill! i love all the detail photos – such great little touches. balance is a great word. it conjures so many different variations and pathways. i can’t wait to see where it takes you in 2012!