Newspapers and my $100 offer to YOU!

A post on John Wall’s Ronin Marketeer lead me to an interview with Duncan Wardle, Vice President of Walt Disney World and Global PR for Disney Parks.

Now, from the sound of it Mr. Wardle is a pretty smart guy. But there was at least one thing from his interview that I take issue with: his claim that “the printed newspapers industry has 3 to 5 years to live”.

The reason I take issue with this is that he’s wrong. Not he might be wrong, he IS wrong. And I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is here.

Now, I have no issue with the idea that the newspaper industry as it exists today will change dramatically in the next few years. For example, Media in Canada today reported, not surprisingly, that newspapers’ online readership is up. The thing is, it’s only up to 17% of Canadians per week, vs. 75% who read a printed paper each week. Oh yeah, and the number who ONLY read an online edition of a newspaper in a week without reading any print? A whooping 3%.

One mention I thought interesting in the MiC article was that “free daily newspapers continue to grow and attract readers.” They don’t qualify ‘grow,’ but I think most people would be surprised to hear the ‘grow’ and ‘print’ used together in any capacity. I must admit I was a bit, but given that we are talking about free papers, maybe Chris Anderson wouldn’t have been. But I digress…

For those of us immersed in digital technology, it’s easy to get excited about RSS and on-demand technology, and forget that there are fundamental cultural reasons for technologies like print. The experience of reading something as a print newspaper is fundamentally different than reading the same information in other formats, no matter how convenient they are. Marshall McLuhan said: “people don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.” It’s difficult to discount the importance of that experience for many, many people.

Which leads me to my offer. I’m positive newspapers will be around for a long time to come, for at least my lifetime and probably well beyond. In fact I’m so positive that I will make this standing offer: if there ever one week when it is impossible to buy or receive for free a current print newspaper within the City of Toronto, get in touch with me. I’ll give you $100.

I’m feeling pretty safe about my money.

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