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Gopalan : Tonight, we talk of the future of newspapers. Do they, in fact, have one? Well, some years ago, when the Internet was beginning to boom, the pundits said it was the end for newspapers around the globe. But while it’s true that the computer is playing an  increasing role in most of our lives, your traditional papers and dailies are far from finished. In fact, it’s the cyber information networks that appear to be in trouble, with several e-zines and Internet news networks folding in the last year or 50. So, what have the newspaper empires- in this country, at least - been doing to defend themselves? We go right back to the basics to find out. Joining me on the couch to talk more about the future of newspapers and the media generally - is an old friend and colleague, Subramanian. He has been around the print business since the ’60s. Back then, as editor of the naughty but nice ‘Vaasagan’ Magazine. Laier, he was theeditor of a big group of papers and the director of a group of magazines. Good to see you on the studios with us.

Subramanian: Good to see you too. I am happy to be here on the show.

Gopalan : Do you think there is a future for newspapers? Because the talk, globally, is that their days are numbered.

Subramanian: Their days are numbered but, I mean, it’s still going to be a very profitable business for the next decade and...

Gopalan : A decade? That’s your own dream, isn’t it?

Subramanian: It’s going to take longer than that. Microsoft says that the last issue of the ‘New York Times’ is going to come out in 2018.

Gopalan : Let’s throw ourselves forward then. If he’s right, if Microsoft and Bill are right, and it is 2018, what happens after that?

Subramanian: What we’re seeing is a breakdown of the old division between books and magazines and newspapers, which were alloriginally allied allied to a certain kind of manufacturing- there were presses that produced books and a different kind of press produced a magazine and a different kind of press produced a newspaper. Today, it’s more. ...um, flexible. In fact, this has been going on for 20 years. The readership of newspapers wi11 come down, partly because of the technology of being able to read online and because of the speed of broadcast and so on.

Gopalan : It’s true if you can get the newspapers online, you get it faster than waiting for them to deliver.

Subramanian: I mean, the enemy today of newspapers is not just online, it’s radio. When I wake up in Chennai every morning, I’m listening to the fm radio news and... when I open the paper a lot of news appears old. But newspapers have been changing and evolving in the last two decades away from narrating, away from telling you what happened, to more and more  predicting what will happen. Well, the people are getting a mixture of broadcast and a bit of online, and, of course, when there are stupendous events like a war, online also comes into its own.

Gopalan : You haven’t mentioned television. Where do we fit into all of this? Are we a threat in any way?

Subramanian: No, I think that... I think that television will become, to some extent, less relevant in terms of current affairs and news. Of course, the current events of lraq have been terrific for the news programs and so on. But when you look ai commercial TV,..er, there’s been a dropping off current affairs...Um, and give or take a news channel or two, I’m not sure that, that trend can be revived. I mean, television is primarily an entertainment medium, rather than an information medium.

Gopalan : And an impact medium! Surely it will always be the great impact medium because you can see things. The reason people have been watching more television, or did watch more television during the period of the Gulf War, is because there are pictures.
Subramanian: Sure, but that’s kind of like a dormant usage. It’s like a fire engine. What do you do with it between fires? And people are using television primarily as a medium
for sport and, er...

Gopalan : For entertainment. We could talk for a long while, probably but time is running out. What would be your one liner about the fate of newspapers?

Subramanian: I would say we are here lo STAY!

Gopalan : The new newspaper- back to the future, us it were. Well, love them or leave them, you cannot ignore them. Subbu is right - they’ll be around for quite a while
yet!