Newspapers and the movies: The future

The challenge of 'new' media

Yesterday I was looking at what I see as parallel challenges and developments within the movie and newspaper industries. New Media has provided a complex array of challenges to traditional media activities, but I think the impact on film and newspapers can be gathered together under two broad themes - an attack on revenue generation, and an attack on 'attention'.

Attack on revenue generation

The movie industry argument about revenue is a simple one. The piracy of DVDs robs them of revenue, and the leaking or pre-release copies or badly cam-corded versions of films onto the net deprives them of box office revenue.

The newspaper industry doesn't have a huge problem with 'piracy' per se, but there is a huge issue that nobody expects to pay for news online - even though the Internet has yet to make primary newsgathering significantly cheaper. The current advertising supported model isn't sustainable in the long term if print advertising revenue continues to fall.

And there is also the Google factor at play in the revenue equation for newspapers.

Not only does Google aggregate and reproduce newspaper content without paying a cent, Google is also the destination for a huge share of online advertising budgets. Instead of newspapers earning the full advertising value of their site, they have been reduced in many cases to adding some contextual Google adverts onto the side of their site, and handing over a cut of the value to Google.

Attack on 'attention'

New media has also posed a common problem to both the movie and newspaper industries in reducing their ability to attract attention, with greater competition from games, Internet interactivity, and a widening production base for 'media'. They've dealt with it in different way.

There was a great deal of speculation suggesting that the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV would impact on cinema box office figures. The movie industry has reacted to the rise of gaming by incorporating gaming elements and franchises into production. The movie industry has had to embrace games and new media. There were movie tie-in games as far back as Tron - which is the first movie franchise that I can remember 'playing'.

Trailers are available on the web, and the internet features as a core plot device in countless films. In the reverse direction, game franchises like Tomb Raider, Silent Hill and Halo have all transformed into movies, with varying degrees of critical acclaim and commercial success. Other populist films, Star Wars Episode II for example, have incorporated whole sequences that seem to have been included primarily to provide a platform-jumping level in the middle of the accompanying game.

At the same time attention to newspapers is plummeting amongst the younger generations, and, frankly, no wonder. In contrast to the movie industry adoption of the types of new media that their younger consumers are interested in, the newspaper industry has generally held itself aloof.

Anyone under the age of 25 is now immersed in a whole new world of digital and interactive media to play with. They are used to constant Internet, game and mobile phone interaction in their lives. The reaction of a lot of mainstream newspapers though has been to overplay the risks of the Internet and dismiss games - take this laughable Daily Mail 'article' for example.

How do newspapers adapt?

It strikes me that for a lot of younger people who do not habitually read a printed newspaper, the only time they are likely to encounter a newspaper website is when someone jokingly points them to an online article where a journalist has written something patently absurd about the dangers of games or the Internet. An article which bears no relation to the consumer's own experience.

Not only do newspapers need to focus on improving their websites and their delivery of new media type content, but they, like the movie industry, also need an editorial revolution towards new media if they are to retain any significant consumer base amongst the under-35's, most of whom have had computers and played games for the majority of their adult lives.