 |
By Kim Hyun-bin
The Korea Times marks its 70th anniversary on Nov. 1, having made substantial contributions in the field of journalism over the years. The paper was founded five months into the 1950-53 Korean War, and started its publication by delivering news on the latest developments in the war and the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula to U.S. troops who were stationed here.
Now, not only is The Korea Times the oldest, continuously published English daily in the country but also it has become a prominent newspaper on the global stage.
The paper has made a name for itself over the past 70 years but can it, or indeed any other newspaper publishing company for that matter, find success for the next 70 years?
That is the question that has been rising over the years as rapid digitization and fast-paced lifestyle changes have become the norm.
In bygone days, newspapers were the main source of information for the public to become aware of social issues as well as political news, but with the emergence of the internet people no longer have to wait until the morning to get their latest news updates.
People are able to receive the latest news and see what the latest issues are without even looking at or opening up a newspaper, with news uploaded online every second. Those feeds are spread vastly throughout the internet via social media, drastically reducing the need for a person to subscribe to a printed publication.
According to data released by the Korea Press Foundation, 69.3 percent of the population subscribed to a newspaper in 1996, but that number dropped more than 10 fold to 6.4 percent by 2019.
The future of newspapers could look dark but there is still a chance to recover. Newspaper publishing companies have to come up with reasons for people to subscribe by swiftly adapting to the vastly changing environment especially in terms of digitization not just for e-newspapers but also for video news.
An e-newspaper can be searched more comprehensively, quickly and reliably than a conventional newspaper.
The foundation also noted a drastic surge in online video platforms with nearly half of the population or 47.1 percent utilizing the technology. Twelve percent of respondents got their news from online video platforms in 2019, double that of the previous year. And this trend isn't limited to the younger generations: people in their 50s took up 12.7 percent of the viewers and those in their 60s, 5.1 percent, which is higher than other news platforms.
In addition, online video content such as YouTube has been evaluated higher and shown more influence than many of the long-standing media outlets in existence. Only a handful of press agencies were rated to be more influential and garner more views than videos on YouTube. The site started off as a simple video streaming site but has now evolved into a platform for news content which industry watchers believe will change the face of the media industry and journalism, expecting it to substantially influence public sentiment in the years to come.
It is nothing new but the smartphone has become a key device for acquiring key news updates. Also the mobile platform interface will continue to diversify in the next decades and when used right it could attract more customers to news platforms through diverse applications.
"The headline is that we see an accelerated move to digital media and mobile media and various kinds of platforms," said Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute.
"This is accompanied by a continued decline in trust in news and growing concerns over misinformation, in particular on social media and from some politicians."
Now more people are using their mobile phones and tablets rather than PCs to receive the latest news. Industry watchers say the gap will further widen in the coming years.
Close to 65 percent of people accessed the internet through their PCs in 2011 with an average use time of 79.2 minutes a day, but that figure continued to drop, to 40.2 percent logging in for 34.9 minutes on average daily in 2019. On the other hand, mobile internet users accounted for 36.6 percent in 2011 with an average 29.5 minutes of daily use but that number skyrocketed to 86.7 percent with an average daily use time of 89.5 minutes.
In 2018, nearly 80 percent of people got their news from mobile phones using them for an average 21.5 minutes, while those looking to PCs dropped from 31.7 percent to 21.1 percent in 2018 with an average use time dropping from 7.4 minutes to 4.8 minutes. Many experts say the mobile internet has come to dominate and the trend is expected to widen in the coming years, which new publishing agencies will need to quickly and swiftly adapt to in order to attract readers.
Economic efficiency and profitability haunts the media industry with advertising on a sharp decline, while many outlets have been reducing staff to cut costs and some well-known global newspaper companies have ceased printing newspapers in favor of fully digitized platforms, transforming to solely online news outlets which better prepare for the future.
A glimmer of hope lies in that more people are willing to purchase their news online.
Many experts believe the industry will change to a "winner takes all" environment with leading content makers taking most of the pie. The U.S. New York Times and Washington Post have nearly taken over the online news market, reeling in paid subscribers to the fairly new platform. The U.K. is no different with the Times and Telegraph taking the lion's share of paid customers in the online news services.
A newspaper's strength will now lie in the opinion pieces it carries, as it cannot swiftly deliver the needed news quicker than portal sites or social media. However, many experts point out that a newspaper's strength may also be in its in-depth analysis and power to affect public opinion.
By strengthening its opinion pages a news publisher will be able to provide diverse analyses and insights to the public. With these considerations in mind, experts believe printed news will survive the digital age and provide an impetus to keep the public purchasing newspapers.
