The Marlowsphere (#11)
For several years, the collective circulation of newspapers in the United States has steadily declined—about 2-3% a year. From various intellectual and business quarters have come cries of “foul” as news and information in print form, i.e., words on newsprint (magazines notwithstanding), have inexorably given way to news and information in digital form. Not only has newspaper circulation declined, remaining newspapers have also shrunk in size (as classified advertising has migrated to the web); some newspapers have vanished altogether.
To some, this has been a shock to the system, but we should not be surprised. The late media guru Marshall McLuhan in his most well-known work Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) said the following: “Once a new technology comes into a social milieu it cannot cease to permeate that milieu until every institution is saturated.” In this context the new technology is electricity, or in more modern parlance “electronic technologies.”
The steady demise of news[on]papers is but one more step reflective of the cultural influence of electronic media, starting with the commercial introduction of the telegraph in 1844. Over a period of 168 years the advance of the electronic means of communication has inevitably penetrated and obviated the news[on]papers model, starting with the very process of how print reporters gather information and draft stories, to how news articles and features are edited, how they are assembled on the page in the production process, and, more recently, how it is all distributed.
Let’s take this step by step. How did reporters gather information before the commercial availability of the telegraph in 1844? Or before the existence of the Alexander Graham Bell patented telephone in 1876? Reporters had to be physically present at an event, or interview people directly in an event, or speak to people who had first-hand knowledge of an event. How did it get written down? With pen or pencil on paper. These “notes” then were massaged into stories that had to then be given directly to a copy editor and/or managing editor at a newspaper. The words were then organized into columns by a compositor one letter at a time, perhaps with a graphic, and printed on several pages of paper organized in such a way that when folded it took on the form of what we have become to know over time as the “newspaper.”
But the process is not yet finished. Those completed newspapers then had to be delivered to the reading public. How did they get there? Keep in mind we’re still in the early-mid 19th century. Within an urban area the “bundles” of newspapers could have been hand carried to a corner, or transported by horse-drawn carriage, or delivered by a “newsie” on foot or on a bicycle. Beyond the urban area, these same newspapers could have been moved from one place to another via ships and steam engine trains.
Given, then, the process of creating a newspaper–from reportage to distribution–before the introduction of the telegraph, the process could take weeks if not months, especially if the news was from outside the United States, such as Europe.
Why is the commercial introduction of the telegraph relevant to this story? Because now the speed of information traveling from one place to another went from the fastest mode of transportation at the time—the train—to the speed of light. Of course, you had to learn Morse Code in order to use the new technology and wires had to be strung from place to another in order for the telegraph to have informational value. And while it took some time for the new technology to be installed, it was the beginning of the end of news[on]papers 160+ years later.
With the telegraph reporters could now report stories to editors at a distance almost instantly, presuming the new telegraphic technology was accessible. Meanwhile, numerous other information, communication, and transportation technologies had come into existence that over time have transformed the entire process of delivering news to the public. The next relevant technology was, of course, the telephone. The telephone allowed reporters to speak to interviewees at a distance, as well as report stories at a distance to editors at newspaper headquarters. The invention of the typewriter also advanced the process to where it is today. First a manual device, then an electric device, the typewriter allowed reporters to tell their stories—still on paper—without regard to handwriting skill. Electricity also ultimately morphed the printing process from the steam-driven press to the faster, more productive electrically-driven printing presses.
Moving into the 20th century, the development of computing technology in the mid-1940s led ultimately to the advent of the home computer in the 1980s—forty years later. This coupled with the introduction of the early Internet by the United States military in 1968–evolving into the development of the World Wide Web in 1989 by Lee-Berners at CERN–leads inexorably to electricity’s final impact on the news[on]papers: delivery.
The final step in the process of delivering news to the public—distribution—has been impacted (and has for at least 15+ years) because now “delivery of the news” need not be on paper. It can be distributed electronically to someone’s computer screen—seemingly in an instant and be available 24/7. No more morning,midday, or evening editions. No more need for waiting for the news[on]paper—the news is delivered to wherever there is a computer with access to the Internet.
In retrospect, electricity’s impact on news[on]papers was inevitable. The availability of electronic devices—from the reporting process to delivery of stories—has changed the “news business” forever. From one end of the process to the other, electronics is there. The print reporter has any number of mobile electronic devices to gather aural and visual material, interview, and deliver a story to an editor at a distance. Copy editors, managing editors, and production personnel all now rely on the computer to do their work, including the layout of every page. Printing is now thoroughly driven by electricity.
What is left? The delivery or the distribution of the stories. Now that about one-third of the world’s population has access to the Internet, the electronic delivery of “news” is clearly an inevitability. In the United States alone Internet penetration is at 80%. Is it no wonder that news[on]papers has been and will continue to be in decline?
Magazines, on the other hand, are apparently keeping steady. Recently, magazine advertising has risen. Magazines are not the same as newspapers. Magazines are the print equivalent of cable channels: each caters to a highly specific audience. Print magazines will survive the “electronic” onslaught for a time.
This is quite apart from the development of radio, broadcast television, and cable television news programming. All three of these other “electronic” news media have impacted how and what news stories get told to a growing international audience. But that is another story.
Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
May 21, 2012
© Eugene Marlow 2012