The begining of an eventual death for local media ?
I used to start my day with a copy of New Straits Times or The Star in the morning, but that old habit has changed since a year and a half ago. Looking around, most of my friends or associates has also stop subscribing to the local newspapers ! Are printed media suffering from declining readership ? The big question is, has there also been a decline in advertisement revenue in the printed media ? For those businesses that are still putting up advertisements in the printed media, probable they should also begin to look elsewhere to spend the advertisement budget more effectively and efficiently. There's been a dramatic increase in Internet users, and majority of this Internet users are well educated with propensity to spend. So businesses who traditionally advertised their products and services in traditional media, will have to relook into their advertising mix to dramatically shift the advertising budget into other medium such as Internet to stay relevant.
Is this age of environmental awareness and knowledge based society, stop buying printed media would probably saved more tree from being fell indiscriminately. "Readers" now are more environmental friendly. In my satiation for news reports and other reading habits, I am also pretty much well awared of my environmental conservation responsibilities. In addition to this "noble" gesture towards the environment, my other reasons for not subscribing to printed media are also purely driven by the convenient of Internet technology and the impartiality and relevances of Internet news sources.
With broadband Internet technology, I can simply search at my finger tips a single news topics from multiple sources at a fractions of a minute as compared to flipping through the bulky media. I believe, even if local media put up on line editions on the Internet, they will still suffer the same fate of declining readerships. "Readers" are also more educated nowadays and wanted to be better informed, they no longer want to waste their time reading perceived lopsided, biased, and propagandized news from local media that are seen to be politically influenced and heavily regulated. So, it is really not surprising to have the finality of local media being gradually disregarded by local readers.
So, are local media now beginning to trace the path of dinosaur into eventual extinction ? I am not a pessimist, but a realist. My answer to that is, YES, the local printed media is a dying industry. I guess, for the local media to survive, they have no other choice but to redefine their business, inject relevancy and impartiality in their editorial contents, and restructure their shareholder equity structures.
More educated and well informed Malaysians are also turning into other uncensored and independent international on line news sources at the expense of local media. In addition, blogs are also increasingly becoming credible alternative to local media. For example, some local blogs managed by Malaysians claimed to have hits exceeding few hundred thousands a day ! significantly much higher than the established local media ! Sometimes during the second half of 2006, the established local media put up indirect news blitz to discredit the local Malaysian blogs claiming that the information presented in these blogs can not be trusted and are irrelevant. But this blitz does not in anyway affected the daily hits of the local blogs at all. The sad conclusion is, either nobody is reading the "estabished" local media any more, or the content of the local media are no longer taken seriously.
In January 2007, 2 prominent Malaysian bloggers are sued by a local media conglomerate for defamation. This is probably the first time in the world where printed media sued small time bloggers for defamation. Whether the media conglomerate win the legal battle or otherwise, my perception and prediction is, it is not going to alter the future bleak possibilities of the local media. Their arrogance days are numbered. They will died an eventual painful death due to future insignificant circulations / readerships and declining advertisement revenues.
So, before we finally say Adieu or Sayonara to the local media, let face it, blogsphere will expand, and online internet resources will continue to gain prominence. Printed media is dead and manipulated media in other forms are also dying... stop blaming blogs and other independent online news sources for the declined. Let's get over it. The sooner the better !
Is this age of environmental awareness and knowledge based society, stop buying printed media would probably saved more tree from being fell indiscriminately. "Readers" now are more environmental friendly. In my satiation for news reports and other reading habits, I am also pretty much well awared of my environmental conservation responsibilities. In addition to this "noble" gesture towards the environment, my other reasons for not subscribing to printed media are also purely driven by the convenient of Internet technology and the impartiality and relevances of Internet news sources.
With broadband Internet technology, I can simply search at my finger tips a single news topics from multiple sources at a fractions of a minute as compared to flipping through the bulky media. I believe, even if local media put up on line editions on the Internet, they will still suffer the same fate of declining readerships. "Readers" are also more educated nowadays and wanted to be better informed, they no longer want to waste their time reading perceived lopsided, biased, and propagandized news from local media that are seen to be politically influenced and heavily regulated. So, it is really not surprising to have the finality of local media being gradually disregarded by local readers.
So, are local media now beginning to trace the path of dinosaur into eventual extinction ? I am not a pessimist, but a realist. My answer to that is, YES, the local printed media is a dying industry. I guess, for the local media to survive, they have no other choice but to redefine their business, inject relevancy and impartiality in their editorial contents, and restructure their shareholder equity structures.
More educated and well informed Malaysians are also turning into other uncensored and independent international on line news sources at the expense of local media. In addition, blogs are also increasingly becoming credible alternative to local media. For example, some local blogs managed by Malaysians claimed to have hits exceeding few hundred thousands a day ! significantly much higher than the established local media ! Sometimes during the second half of 2006, the established local media put up indirect news blitz to discredit the local Malaysian blogs claiming that the information presented in these blogs can not be trusted and are irrelevant. But this blitz does not in anyway affected the daily hits of the local blogs at all. The sad conclusion is, either nobody is reading the "estabished" local media any more, or the content of the local media are no longer taken seriously.
In January 2007, 2 prominent Malaysian bloggers are sued by a local media conglomerate for defamation. This is probably the first time in the world where printed media sued small time bloggers for defamation. Whether the media conglomerate win the legal battle or otherwise, my perception and prediction is, it is not going to alter the future bleak possibilities of the local media. Their arrogance days are numbered. They will died an eventual painful death due to future insignificant circulations / readerships and declining advertisement revenues.
So, before we finally say Adieu or Sayonara to the local media, let face it, blogsphere will expand, and online internet resources will continue to gain prominence. Printed media is dead and manipulated media in other forms are also dying... stop blaming blogs and other independent online news sources for the declined. Let's get over it. The sooner the better !
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