Futurist Ross Dawson spoke this week at the Newspaper Publishers Association conference in his native Australia and delivered a new timeline for the point-of-no-return-to-glory newspaper: 2022. By that time, he expects most media companies will have transformed into thriving new media businesses.
Note that Dawson doesn't say newspapers will die/disappear/dissolve by then, only that their relevance will diminish to the point of irrelevance.
Dawson believes that within a dozen years e-reading tablets won't cost much more than pharmaceutical tablets --- about $10 --- and they will be the primary form of news consumption. He thinks news will be increasingly crowdsourced and that individual reputations of journalists will drive the size of audiences.
Meantime, news companies will need to transform into firms emphasizing social connection.
As for revenue, it will grow but disperse, Dawson predicts.
Note that Dawson doesn't say newspapers will die/disappear/dissolve by then, only that their relevance will diminish to the point of irrelevance.
Dawson believes that within a dozen years e-reading tablets won't cost much more than pharmaceutical tablets --- about $10 --- and they will be the primary form of news consumption. He thinks news will be increasingly crowdsourced and that individual reputations of journalists will drive the size of audiences.
Meantime, news companies will need to transform into firms emphasizing social connection.
As for revenue, it will grow but disperse, Dawson predicts.
