Hard copy or online for your news and business?
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Interestingly, the vendor from whom he has always bought his daily newspapers at his Spintex Road stall has ritually kept copies of the dailies for him.
Now confronted with the bill for three weeks’ supply of the Daily Graphic and the Mirror, he begins to question the economics of buying old hard copies of papers he had already read days ago. This begs the question, how useful are hard copy newspapers when the social media and online publications are readily available and can be consumed hot at current value and for free! Do we need the tabloids and the broadsheets in this digital age?
The contents of a newspaper may vary according to the editorial policy of the owner(s). Typically, and taking the Daily Graphic as an example, there is a front page on which is displayed the papers logo and any message of claim about its reputation. Then there is the major news for the day which for the sake of emphasis may have a screamer for a headline.
There is also a section where other important headlines are flagged with their page numbers. The rest of the space is taken by a valued advertiser, who is seeking an opportunity to increase its business. Currently, it is Toyota, presumably a top payer to the Graphic coffers.
On the inside pages are headlines of other important pieces categorised as News, Opinion, and Gender (yes gender). The others are Education, Business and Health. There could be a cartoon piece too, that makes a profound statement in a humourous manner. The rest may be Entertainment and Sports.
It is one’s guess that it is the all-powerful editorial conference that decides whose article gets the nod here and there could be some truth in the joke that if a contributor’s article does not get listed here, then the editor is using it just to fill the space in the paper. It may be true also that sometimes the conference could not make out what category they should slot it into; an article that suffers such is regarded as “scatter-brained.”
The rest of the newspaper is all for the business opportunity seekers: advertisers for products and services, self-seeking individuals who plant congratulatory messages for self-imagined achievements. Of course, most of the adverts have to be glossily presented in colour to win the heart rather than the mind. There would, once a while, appear a review of a book by an individual in Ghana with the quixotic spirit hoping to stir the slumbering interests of non-existent readers.
Newspaper experts claim that where pictorials are necessary, their value can be judged by their positions on a page. Top left denotes most important, centre is medium news value and bottom far right says it is least important. This arrangement and their interpretations hold for hard copy newspaper as well as online paper.
The question is, if the arrangements as well as the contents are the same, why would one prefer a digital copy of the social media to hard copy newspaper?
One has to note that a lot of the articles one sees in one’s favourite websites or social media forums are drawn from newspapers, and the users and creators of these sites give preference to items they think will interest the reader. Incidentally, what they have left out may be that which is of interest to the reader.
While real newspapers have a longer time span, the news on the website is temporary and will be missed in a few hours. Clearly old newspapers are relevant with useful content. One can hold a newspaper, feel it and admire it. As cuttings newspapers serve historical and academic purposes. Mr Frazier is a storage freak of old newspapers, some of which he lists as assets to be inherited. The cockroaches and ageing by yellowing may have done their share of havoc but they are still worth keeping.
Beyond intellectual usefulness, all newspapers have a re-sale value. The groundnut and Kofi Brokeman seller might offer good money for it. Admittedly, however, as a wrapping material, the pervasive plastic has outclassed old newsprint. All the same, the keeper of the public toilet finds old newspapers irreplaceable. Old newspapers also may be pulped for manufacture of cardboard, egg tray and paper napkins.
All this certainly is heavily loaded with sentiments. The hard facts of the modern day are that the business model has changed as the smart phones and tables take over the world of media distribution. Distribution, one should remember, forms the greatest proportion of the costs of newspapers. A move to cyberspace away from the trucks, trains and the airplanes to far-away places is, therefore, desirable.
Recognising this fact, most newspapers have gone partly digital but some of the websites do look pathetic. They are poorly designed. The links are few and the blogs are not posted timeously. For some of our local papers, their online editions are 24 hours late. Such papers are missing the digital boat.
By Joe Frazier/Ghana/[email protected]
(Author: Blame not the Darkness, a novel on the Millennium Development Goals and Akora, a satire on land-grabbing)