Roger Fidler
Finally - the news industry starts to catch up
1994 Video: Roger Fidler describes his controversial vision for digital publishing, a vision which has now become a reality.
A generation ago, in 1992, Roger Fidler issued this challenge: “What the newspaper industry desperately needs is a new vision for the 21st century—a vision that, as strange as it may seem, is not dependent on ink-on-paper printing.”
At the time, Fidler, born in 1943, had taken a leave from the Knight-Ridder newspaper group, where he was a graphic designer and new technology thinker, to plan for the future of print media while a Freedom Forum fellow at Columbia University.
Fidler compared newspaper executives to railroad tycoons. Those tycoons knew, in their heart of hearts, that passenger railroad service was doomed because the MBAs managing their companies and the Wall Street money managers wanted to maximize profits by hauling freight, not humans. But those tycoons loved trains too much to find a new business plan for passenger service before their old model collapsed.
As early as the 1980s, quite a few daily newspaper tycoons knew, in their heart of hearts, that they were in the business of providing timely, useful information for mass audiences. Then most of them, instead of acting on that insight, returned to the not always so timely, not always so informative ink on paper model. They loved the physical newspaper too dearly to innovate with digital alternatives. But, as MBAs and Wall Street money managers moved in to maximize profit, ink on paper failed to satisfy.
Now, in 2009, the tycoons are watching their beloved industry collapse. Thousands of newspaper employees have lost their jobs, once mighty newspaper companies are seeking bankruptcy law protection, and Fidler can only sigh about what might have been.
Fidler suggested a plan in 1992, rather than merely criticizing industry moguls for shortsightedness caused by excess passion for ink on paper. In Washington Journalism Review and other forums, Fidler suggested newspaper companies gear up to disseminate information through personal information organizers, the devices today known as Blackberries and I-Phones and laptop computers.
Fidler envisioned devices called “flat panels” or “tablets” or “e-readers” that would “combine the readability and ease of use of paper with the interactivity of personal computers and the compelling qualities of video and sound.” Newspapers, Fidler said in 1992, could profit from those technologies better than any other sector. Why? Because “content, not technology,” would determine the success of new media. “And content is what newspapers know best.”
Providing content for new media constituted an opportunity that “won’t wait for long,” Fidler said. “Instead of devoting so much effort to fighting this vision, the newspaper industry must prepare to seize it. If they don’t, someone else will.”
While at Columbia University Fidler created the first working prototype of his electronic newspaper concept. The e-reader device sits in his office today, along with 13 variations that never made a dent in the marketplace.
In 2004, when Fidler made the move to the University of Missouri Journalism School as the inaugural visiting fellow of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, he vowed to launch the world’s first live digital newspaper edition using the existing ink on paper Columbia Missourian as his starting point.
During March 2005, Fidler fulfilled his promise with a 10-week field test that delivered the Missourian using eMprint (electronic media print). About 4500 Missourian readers participated. Fidler noted that larger newspapers should find the potential attractive, because eMprint offered an electronic format both reader friendly and advertiser friendly.
However, large newspapers did not make the intellectual or financial investments in eMprint that could have helped build readership.
Things began to change in 2008, with the success of the Amazon Kindle e-reader which is stocked with digital versions of newspapers, magazines and books.
E-readers are intended as “green” alternatives to paper for accessing and reading all types of printed documents— newspapers, magazines, newsletters, books, journals, manuals, reports, memos, etc. They retain most of the characteristics of paper while incorporating many of the hypermedia features of the Web. Electronic paper displays can provide a reading experience nearly comparable to ink printed on paper. They are reflective, so they can be read comfortably in the same lighting conditions people use for reading on paper, even under bright overhead lights and sunlight. They also require much less power to operate than the liquid crystal displays used in notebook computers.
Turning this theory into practice, however, will not be a simple matter. Most newspaper companies have huge investments in printing plants and distribution networks, so publishers are unlikely to suddenly shut them down and give every subscriber an e-reader.
Fidler, however, is working from within. Through the formation of the Digital Publishing Alliance (DPA) he has forged partnerships with leading media organizations to explore digital publishing strategies, products and business models. Based at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the 30-plus members of the DPA include the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.
Each member news organization receives assistance producing up to six digital newsbooks for use on e-readers.
The content of the newsbooks “consists primarily of journalistic investigative and explanatory reports that were originally published in the newspapers or magazines,” Fidler says. “The book-size format blends the readability of printed publications with the interactivity of the Web while preserving each publisher’s typographic branding.”
Fidler says teachers, students and policy makers constitute likely markets. But he hopes the sales will not end there. “Newsbooks may appeal to newspaper and magazine readers who would prefer a timely series or long special report in a more convenient book-like package,” he says. Such a new revenue stream might delay or even reverse the decline of investigative and explanatory reporting in some newsrooms.
Next: Taking a story from print to digital isn’t as easy as it looks