The newspaper industry is grappling to maintain self-sustenance because of the technological boom and digital news forms, the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team heard on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Representative for Caxton Media, Paul Jenkins, told the hearing in Braamfontein, Johannesburg that apart from exercising the watchdog role, newspapers like any other business needed to generate profit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe trouble with the newspapers is that apart from being the fourth estate, they are at the same time a business. There is the persuasive effect that profit does have on your paid-for dailies (newspapers). The owner exercises influence over the newspaper because we are in a capitalist society.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the media we are wrestling with a much bigger argument. As we go online, we are saying who pays for our journalists? The internet is free and who pays the newsroom?\u201d Jenkins asked.<\/p>\n
He said newspapers needed bigger financial resources to be able to gather news and distribute to far-flung communities. Without the backing of government or corporate entities through advertising, Jenkins said reaching out was complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (the newspaper) would need a government subsidy or it would need to be carrying government advertising. I am not sure if anything is wrong with that. Alternatively, we would get into (a model) which I call public service publishing akin to public service broadcasting.<\/p>\n
\u201c(In that model) everybody must pay a licence fee and it is in the communities’ need that we need those newspapers. The trouble with that is that it will be called propaganda,\u201d said Jenkins.<\/p>\n
He said with the technological boom and rapid internet access, the newspaper industry was struggling to survive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with the newspaper industry is that we are exchanging our rands for internet cents,\u201d said Jenkins.<\/p>\n
From a media freedom perspective, Jenkins said media outlets would prefer self-regulation. He said media houses’ major fear was not about their business viability but the existence of press freedom.<\/p>\n
Jenkins was then asked to explain to the task team how a transformation regulation charter would infringe media freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe issue around press is fragile. When you start with a charter that is imposed by government or imposed through some kind of statutory enactment, it is the thin end of the wedge. Where does it stop?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow would you categorise whether someone is a journalist or not? Does that mean we are going to have a registry of journalists? We (the media) would rather self-regulate ourselves than have a charter enforced through an Act,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Counsel for Media 24, Ashoek Adhikari, told the hearing that newspaper companies were faced with having to scale down operations and sack employees.<\/p>\n
“There has been significant re-alignment going on in the industry already. We also understand that a new business model hasn’t emerged.<\/p>\n
“Many new things have been tried, experimenting [in the newspaper industry], but they don’t work,” said Adhikari.<\/p>\n
“What is clear is that there is a move to digital, and specifically a move to mobile [phones]. In the process of re-alignment, there is going to be great pain through further staff reductions,” he said.<\/p>\n
Print media, globally, was in a state of decline and South Africa was no exception.<\/p>\n
The task team’s hearing on Thursday was part of a facts submission phase by key players in South Africa’s newspaper industry: Media 24, Independent Newspapers, Caxton Media, Times Media Group, the Mail&Guardian, and BDFM.<\/p>\n
The task team was set up in August to help the industry develop a common transformation strategy. It is examining issues such as ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, and the low level of black ownership in many large media groups.<\/p>\n
It was established after Parliament’s portfolio committee on communications criticised the print media sector and called for a transformation charter.<\/p>\n
Print Media SA, now called Print and Digital Media SA, rejected the idea and said the media industry would deal with the matter in its own way.<\/p>\n
Paywalls in SA inevitable: expert<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Paying for online news<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n