NewsBeat

June 2016 NewsBeat 5 — Reprinted for Editor & Publisher trust issues. Now that your devices can leave digital footprints for marketers, you're more vulnerable to an onslaught of annoying ads that will follow you around each Web page you visit. It's not surprising the usage of ad blockers continues to grow each year. "It's Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook, all with their own revenue platforms. Google has the Web, Facebook has its app, and Apple has the iPhone. This is the newest and biggest war in tech going today," said Nilay Patel in a recent article on The Verge. It's pretty ironic that the biggest treat to digital advertising now is another digital product; technology that was created to combat other technology. It's tech versus tech, and newspaper publishers shouldn't have to choose a side. What they need to do is create their own defensive force—all they need to do is look at their print product to find their best weapon. Slowing It Down Earlier I said this digital fatigue can be blamed on the 24/7 news cycle or our constant stream of social media updates, but I believe it can also be attributed to our addiction to the Internet. With our smartphones and other mobile devices at our fingertips, it's easier to stay distracted. In a recent New York Times op-ed piece "Addicted to Distraction," Tony Schwartz wrote: "The brain's craving for novelty, constant stimulation and immediate gratification creates something called a 'compulsion loop.' Like lab rats and drug addicts, we need more and more to get the same effect… Endless access to new information also easily overloads our working memory. When we reach cognitive overload, our ability to transfer learning to long-term memory significantly deteriorates. It's as if our brain has become a full cup of water and anything more poured into it starts to spill out." So, how do we stop our cups from spilling over? Unplugging from the Internet won't work, not when it's integral for publishers to reach readers on digital platforms, but there is something out there called "slow journalism." Take a look at Delayed Gratification, a London-based print magazine. The name says it all. Delayed Gratification is published every three months and "revisits the news after the dust has settled to give the final analysis on the stories that mattered," according to its website (slow-journalism.com ). The news cycle doesn't show any signs of slowing down though, and before you can even say "hashtag," readers have already moved on to the latest headline. The reality is readers are looking to Facebook and Twitter for the latest bits of news, and once they receive that, they should look to newspapers to examine and investigate the news they're reading to find out who is telling the truth and who is just blowing hot air. "People want to step away from the white noise, wanting something a little more nourishing and in-depth and a little less throwaway," Rob Orchard, Delayed Gratification co-founder and editorial director, told The Drum. For example, during one Friday afternoon in April, #watermelon was a trending topic on Twitter. Why? Because more than half a million people were watching two BuzzFeed employees on Facebook Live try to make a watermelon explode with rubber bands. At the time of this report, the watermelon explosion video had more than 5 million views and the number will most likely climb. Media outlets from Mashable to CNBC jumped on the watermelon experiment, reporting on the social phenomenon. Was it just a case of slow news day or the fact that, according to CNBC, the feed is now the most-watched livestream in Facebook history enough to make it newsworthy? What's Old is New Again With the recent popularity of movie reboots, TV show revivals, and reunion concert tours, can the power of nostalgia also be applied to print? After all, record players and Polaroid cameras are cool again especially among younger consumers. For many print publications, brand reorganization is still a major key to its success. In 2012, Newsweek magazine announced it was ceasing its print product, but when the company was sold to IBT Media in 2013, the new owners decided to resurrect the print magazine a year later as a "premium… boutique product," editor-in-chief Jim Impoco told the New York Times in an interview. The strategy seems to have paid off. International Business News reported Newsweek made its first-ever profit in Europe, Middle East and Africa at the end of 2015. IBT Media attributed the profit to a 90 percent surge in revenue, and advertising revenues jumped 327 percent year-on-year due to the increase of print and digital advertising as well as a growth in subscriptions. In an interesting move, Newsweek announced earlier this year it was dropping its paywall, but not its digital subscriptions model. "The general strategy is to open up and allow folks the ability to experience and really enjoy the journalism that's happening on Newsweek," IBT media chief marketing officer Mitchell Caplan told Ad Age. So, the question is will newspapers become a "premium, boutique product" as was the case with Newsweek? And even though more newspapers are contemplating whether or not to reduce its print schedule, will more consumers flock to print again after getting inundated with the likes of Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and Apple Smartwatch (and their hefty price tags)? Returning to print shouldn't be seen as taking a step back. Many readers still rely heavily on the print edition. A Pew Research Center study found that around half of newspaper readers in three U.S. metropolitan cities (Denver, Colo., Macon, Ga., and Sioux City, Iowa) only read in print. With the saturation of news, the toxicity of online harassment, and the amount of poor Web experiences, readers will soon want to come back to print. This resurgence must take place if we want to keep print around for many more years, and publishers can accomplish that by immersing readers—not with virtual reality headsets—but with ink on their hands.

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