Where are we headed?

So you have got that much-desired senior reporter title and the beat you are experienced in. Salary matches your lifestyle and then there are some crumbs left to put in the Small Investment Plan (SIP). You miss stories couple of times a week but it’s not that bad- good exclusives level off the slump. You are still far from being that old hag journo who is now writing tit bits for some horribly-unknown broadsheet. In your late 20s, you still have lot of time and stamina to carry on with the profession. But does your job have that kinda stamina to carry on? What if the profession runs out of steam before you do?
It was in the late 90s that English dailies in India decided to realign themselves. Introducing newer clever designs, westernised style of reporting and hiring contract workers rather than Wage Board journalists, they went on to capture young readers. Hindi publications followed suit but with a time gap of 5-10 years.
A decade after the first experiment, things are about to change again with TV news, Internet and mobile making inroads at places where newspapers may take years to set up a printing press.
That’s what is happening across the world starting from US. Going by the pace at which we are catching up with the West, it would not take long for the trend to get to our share of pie. With Internet giants like google and yahoo offering news for free across the world on computers and mobile devices, paper may soon face the brunt.
In Britain around 70 local papers have shut down since the beginning of 2008. Among the survivors, advertising is dwindling, editorial is thinning and journalists are being laid off. Technology has earlier phased out several popular products like typewriters, cassette players and landline phones. Television news has taken over the newspaper space and lesser time available with people means they watch more TV or read news on cellphone.
But can you really compare these mediums with a newspaper. Journalists investigate and criticise governments, thus helping voters decide whether to keep them or sack them. With sting operations out of TV news, they have nothing else but to give spot news and have a panel of members discuss issues already debated. In newspapers, pressure is always for exclusives, journalists work overtime to build sources, meet them every other day and do investigations. Power of the written word is still strong as all public offices manage news clippings concerning them, letters to editor is still the best option for readers to present their views since TV has less time for them and nobody knows how blogs are read, by whom and from where.
Newspaper companies are trying to ride the wave by launching web editions and offering services on blackberries, but they are yet to find a business model for that. With Google and Yahoo offering free news, they can’t yet ask for charges from readers. But they have to find out a way soon. India, meanwhile, seems to be lax on this front. Recent statement of India Today group chairman Aroon Purie at a London conference sums up the mood. “I hope that this (business) model is sorted out in the West and by the time it comes to us we have it all up and running,” he said. This blatantly means we would continue to ape the West both in progress as well as decay.
India, however, has one unexpected advantage- that of large number of illiterate citizens who can be potential market for the newspapers if we know how to sell. Hindi and regional newspapers have already taken the bait and are rising in numbers as well as circulations. English papers are catching school students forcing on them a habit to read by offering discounts.
The growing influence of so many news sources can be gauged from the fact that we have lesser news in common to discuss at tea time. We all have different sources and differnt news to quote. But does not that translate into more job avenues? It’s all very ironic.
Future feels uncertain, the only surety remains we would have news which is different from present just like present is different from past.

Photo courtesy- www.raingod.com