What Happens Next?

I've just finished reading Peter Preston (@PJPrest) in the Observer giving an overview of the direction in which newspapers seem to be going.  For those of us that work in the industry, the figures make for depressing reading.  To crib from his feature (which you can read here) the Times and Sunday Times is losing somewhere between £11m and £60m, Lebedev's Independent and Standard company is losing £27.4m and the Guardian and Observer are losing £44m.  Those figures, surely,  are unsustainable.  How much longer will the titles will be allowed to exist?  If they were a football team, they'd already be finished.

The obvious solution should be online.   Advertising on the web accounts for £1 of every £4 spent, so why aren't the websites of these papers bringing money in?   The only figure cited by Mr Preston is the £14.7m the Guardian makes, but if they're still losing as much as stated above, it's not the financial salve they're probably hoping for.  All the papers are looking at the Times experiment, being the only title charging to access their content and journalists should all be hoping that it's a success as it will keep them in jobs.  Surfers will be reluctant as they've evolved expecting to get everything for free.  Really the papers should have collaborated; my guess is that even the most devoted reader of the Times might have gone elsewhere when the paywall was introduced.  Particularly given the short amount of time they spend reading online - Peter cites 15 minutes, compared to the 40 they would spend with a newspaper.

Peter's answer is niche sites (his example being Politico) and I think he might have a point.  If you're particularly interested in one type of content, it makes sense.  I will often browse the online Arts & Ents or Life & Style sections of the papers, skipping between three titles.  If they were all in one place, I'd hit that site more frequently.  The other solution has to be 'freemium' titles.  If the London institution (and now free newspaper) Evening Standard is losing money, how come free papers Shortlist and Stylist can prosper?

ibollocks

So far I've resisted the lure of the iPhone, even with all those sexy apps.  It would just be one more screen that I would be required to look at in the course of a day.  If one good thing has come out of the requirement for modern day workers to perform their daily tasks at computer terminals, it might be, if they're anything like me, that they watch less TV.  Sometimes I just can't face the goggle box after a day in front of several other screens. Its BBC Breakfast for me while I'm spooning porridge or eggs down my gullet, then a monitor for 8 or so hours at work if I'm freelancing for someone.  Then it's the laptop when I get home for a bit to deal with all the emails I swerved during the day, for Facebook and Twitter, for this blog and others.  Depending who is online, it might also be time for a Skype or MSN.   Then there's always the lure of 'Enders or the 9pm movie on Film4 and Family Guy is always hard to resist, right?  Even in the pub I might find myself looking into someone's photos on their phone or a video of them goofing about.  If it's not on screen, does it even exist anymore?

So the release of the iPad is just another gadget that will add to my paranoia about the amount of time I spend looking at a screen.  Sure I want one; if the success of the Pod and the Phone are anything to go by it seems inevitable that in a couple of years you'll find me on a train running my finger over the screen of one more tenderly that I would a new lover.  Damn them if the bods at Apple haven't found another way to eat into some of the rare non-screen time I had left.  Shitty weather makes me happy as it gives me an excuse to forsake my bike and get on the train, which means I can read.  Old fashioned paper with words printed on it: a book, a newspaper, something tangible in my hands.  Even reading a restaurant menu these days provides me with a thrill, albeit relatively minor. How long before I'm tapping on the table to order and the job queues are full of ex-waiters?

And in other news, the answer to the question this blog poses recently was yes - I ended up writing for Shortlist.  Now I'm off to get on the laptop to find out how long it is before they release the iPad in this country...