Internet will overtake newspapers as principal source of funding - Gulf Print forum

Speaking on the first day of the 2009 edition of Gulf Print, an international exhibition which attracts key suppliers of printing machinery, printing and publishing software and ancillary equipment, and which is being held at Dubai's Airport Expo, she said that as market share of revenue was declining or at best remaining stationary for print, the internet share of revenue was increasing dramatically such that by 2018 the two revenue streams should be on a par with one another.

"A recent poll of users in the US showed that within the next five years, the majority expected to get their main news input from online web sites as opposed to from TV news bulletins as at present," she said. "So when content providers are planning to meet the challenges of the next five years, top of their agendas are product development for marketing and advertising, followed by product development for editorial content, improving media integration and rapid implementation."

"Success in the future will not be determined by the level of print, but by what will be achieved by the extraordinary growth online, followed by cost management in print. And to that end newspaper publishers will use the fact that at present they are the most trusted brands of all media. By leveraging that trust base, the will retain and attract advertisers and readers to new more niche products that will have a lower overall readership, but a much higher reach within a very specialised market segment," Stone added.

"Some of these 'printcasts' may have runs of less than 5,000, but their CPM - cost per thousands - will be much more attractive to producers of content and by extension to advertisers. By utilising the latest in digital print technologies the costs can be brought down even further, making them an extremely attractive proposition. This will better enable direct marketing and accountability within the advertising market as the cost to reach that target audience is reduced," Stone said.

Francis Matthew, Editor at Large for the Al Nisr Group, which publishes Gulf News, said that the media landscape in the GCC was somewhat more conservative than what was happening currently in some western countries. "Nevertheless, at Gulf News, we have an audited circulation of around 120,000 copies, whereas gulfnews.com reaches 2.4 million people every month," he said.

"But our print publication leads the news agenda. It creates content, sending reporters to cover stories, to get quotes, to gauge the public's reaction. Traditionally, especially in this region, TV and radio follow the press, picking up stories from newspapers and then running with them, rather than generating the initial content themselves. In general, news websites lift their content from newspapers; they rarely have their own reporters that go out and search for content. But now, as content providers start coming together and producing newspapers, broadcast channels and internet web sites, so the traditional role of the reporter and editor is changing," Matthew continued.

"Now our reporters are expected to file their stories at any time of the day or night - not just as the deadline for the print edition approaches. For instance, if there is a fire at a warehouse, the reporter will call in to get something out on our radio station; he will file copy for our online edition; he will then create content for the printed edition; and then he will continue to update the story perhaps up to eight times for the radio and internet outlets," he added.

"In effect, this is a spot news service. Our internet website is more in touch with our readers, who not only consume our stories, but help in their creation, sending in photographs, videos and information which are used in both the print and online editions. This in turn means that editorial control has to be even more vigilant, looking out for hoax messages and ensuring the integrity of the news," he said.

Referring to the auditing of printed titles, Francis Matthew said he believed there needed to be more transparency within the industry.

"Advertisers have every right to doubt unaudited titles," he impugned "as the GCC lags behind the rest of the world in open accountability on print runs and advertising reach. And as the UAE's population grows from its present five million to around 8.8 million by 2020, and as smaller more niche titles appear, this level of auditing will become ever more necessary," Francis Matthew concluded.