Rupert Murdoch Warns of End of Newspapers

A late friend of the Kensington Review was often heard to say, "No self-respecting fish would allow itself to be wrapped in a Rupert Murdoch newspaper." The man who wrecked The Times and continues to produce the New York Post, sanity notwithstanding, does have much for which to answer. However, in a speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, he did get something right. Technology is changing newspapers, but he was wrong in predicting their end.

Part of the change is demographic. Younger people are tech savvier as a group than their seniors. This means that, as time goes by, the weblogs, podcasts , wikis, and other methods of delivering information will grow in popularity. And that means that when those media are better able to deliver news and information better than the newspaper, the newspaper as a form will suffer.

There is nothing inherently surprising about this. Newspaper readership and the number of newspapers published started declining shortly after the invention of radio. TV killed off the evening paper as a viable tool for spreading the news of the day. The Internet, especially broadband, will eat into this further. Philip Myer, a fellow who studies newspaper readership, has projected that at the current rate of decline in readership, the last edition of the last newspaper will go to the recycling center in 2040.

Mr. Murdoch sees the problem as one of editorial leadership. "Too many of us editors and reporters are out of touch with our readers." Young people "don't want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what's important, and they certainly don't want news presented as gospel. As an industry, many of us have been remarkably, unaccountably complacent." Indeed, and the reason is largely the corporate structure of the news business -- as practiced by Mr. Murdoch.

A major multinational that has a newspaper on its income statement as a single line doesn't care about the news, but rather about advertising rates. That's why Mr. Murdoch's The Sun has a topless woman on page 3 every morning, and (the reader will forgive the double entendre) that boosts circulation more than a report on taxes, deficits or foreign affairs. Quantity is the only quality that advertisers need consider most of the time. The result is . . . Mr. Murdoch's empire of nonsense.

In the end, though, there will always be a need for a newspaper. As a random access storage device for information, no computer can rival it. It requires no power to use. And best of all, it can be passed around in sections -- a very early form of file sharing. Finally, if one is without an umbrella in the rain, no weblog will save the carefully coiffed hair. Still, this evening's dinner deserves better than wrapping in a Murdoch paper.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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