Technology will define print changes

When interviewing with the Rockford Register-Star, I got into a fascinating conversation with executive editor Linda Cunningham. For over 17 years, she had reveled in a job she only expected to keep for two. And throughout the ages, she’d seen many aspects of the business change, especially the rise of technology that make transmitting the Register-Star’s message beyond its traditional area of coverage.

Much of our conversation centered on many things we talk about in class. For example, she inquired about my first memories of Internet usage. The answer to this was American Online – a product that is struggling to keep up with the lightning quick speed of the technological curb. Broadband broke down institutional gates keeping the speed, and therefore, the enjoyment out of the Internet. But it also broke down the stranglehold of the primary players in the media game – print, television and radio.

No longer would these transistors of information be the only way to get a grasp of what was important in the world.

But even a powerful tool like the Internet has palpable limitations. It needs some sort of expensive machine – such as a laptop or a high-end cellular phone – to operate within the peak performance. This reveals a significant cost barrier, one that keeps the less affluent members of the population to be left out, and therefore reasonably committed to newspapers, television and radio. While the Internet has already been partly merged with the out-and-out function of television (through services like DirectTV), we have yet to see paper and computer technology merge.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

As we discussed in class, technology experts are hard at work perfecting “liquid
paper,” which would automatically update as the news cycle goes forward. When and if this technology becomes inexpensive enough to be implemented and spread to the masses, it will be the most revolutionary change ever to come to the newspaper industry. Not only will it allow papers to concentrate their resources away from heavy materials like ink and paper, cutting cost dramatically, but it will also allow the static information usually on paper to become dynamic and up-to-the minute, thus making the industry a fairly substantial competitor to internet and television.

Of course, this technology needs to be perfect and perfected again in order to be a feasible reality. It also needs to be relatively inexpensive for the average citizen, which will likely be difficult, considering the technology being forged will likely be fairly attractive to the public. This technology will likely be a huge challenge for smaller newspapers, which might not be able to afford to adapt to the new technology for years after it’s implemented. I can see a lot of small town papers going out of business or being absorbed by bigger papers.

I also see the newspapers growing closer together as far as ownership goes. I see a lot of different news sources banding together with this technology to bring the reader completely national coverage under one “paper.” I envision a sort of Google news on liquid paper – fast, entertaining and customizable.

Technology is changing fast now, but I feel that the greatest change to the newspaper industry lies ahead. It is a change that will shake the very foundations and definition of what it means to be a “print” publication.