Braving the storm

Odds are that the print medium will continue to lose popularity, but it is unlikely to be eliminated in the foreseeable future as newspapers still have many advantages like convenience and choice content at low cost, said Yu Guoming, a journalism professor at Renmin University of China in Beijing.

"Traditional media are increasingly under pressure from the Internet, but the former still maintains credible brands, take up major market shares and exert mainstream influence in the industry," Yu told China Daily in an interview.

"New technology is not the realm of only the Internet. The newspaper industry can also jump on the digital bandwagon to display its advantages and, in the meantime, react and adapt to changes in readers' habits."

He also cited core values, such as the credibility and integrity associated with brands and a more professional way of gathering and producing the news, compared with the Internet medium.

These values will not be compromised just because newspapers are presented in forms other than print, he said.

"Traditional media today should enhance their crisis management sense and seize the opportunity to transform themselves," Yu told a summit on media brands last month in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in the Northeast.

Echoing Yu, Min Dahong said traditional media will need to deliver their content through multiple platforms, including the Internet, compact discs, broadcasting and communications networks aside from paper.

Shi Feng, deputy chief of the General Administration of Press and Publication, said content, not technology, would ultimately win users.

"In response to the emerging media, the print industry should proactively integrate with them and use new technology and new mechanisms to expand its foothold," he said.

The convergence of print and new media could ultimately produce a digital newspaper business, Shi said.

"Newspapers could be digitized in many forms ... and we need more practice in this field, but our purpose is to develop the industry to deliver information in a faster, wider and better fashion," he said.

In its development guideline for the media industry during the country's 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-10), Shi's agency set forth a "digital newspaper industry" strategy, encouraging the print medium to develop e-newspapers and other digital products and provide information services at an additional cost.

Saving trees

Some news organizations are already piloting paperless newspapers. For example, Jiefang Daily, which circulates mainly in Shanghai, published its first e-newspaper on April 14.

In addition, the iResearch Consulting Group said in September that digital magazines in China reached a total circulation of 360 million last year and predicted it would increase by 75 per cent to reach 610 million in 2006.

Tian Yong, president of www.cnnb.com.cn (China Ningbo Network), said that by going digital, e-newspapers could attract more young readers, most of whom are glued to the Internet.

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