Paper newspapers: will they disappear in one or 5 years? Increasingly digital information as long as it is not a jungle

Until ten years ago who imagined the end of paper newspapers he was taken as a prophet of doom or, at best, as a visionary without ties to reality. But time has done justice to the illusions and the crisis of traditional publishing has been faster than one might think, just as the diffusion of information online has been equally rapid, even if, as we shall see, it is not a world made up of roses and flowers.

The vertical fall of paper newspapers was impressive, as was and is the increasingly merciless disappearance of newsstands. Web journalism but in many cases also sites and social media that act as purely passive aggregators of news have, day after day, taken their place. And nothing suggests that we can go back. The proof is easy: paper newspapers are bought by middle-aged readers and even older readers, who do not give up their taste and habit of paper. But among young people whoever buys or reads a paper newspaper is a white fly.

Blame the costs? Paid paper journals and web journals partly or entirely free? This is not the crucial point. Perhaps it matters more the habit of fast information – made up, with rare exceptions, more of news or simply of titles than of analyses, comments and insights – which is now a fundamental characteristic of the new generations. The speed and quantity of news seems to be worth more than their reliability, their quality and their interconnection which can help us not only to know what is happening but to understand the reality that surrounds us. These are elements that make you think and that require innovative answers but that discourage pedagogical arrogance destined to certain failure.

How long can a situation like today's last which sees the diffusion of paper newspapers increasingly plummeting and which pushes many of them - also in Italy and even among the major newspapers - to plan the abandonment of paper editions and the total reconversion digital? According to what "la Repubblica" (on paper!) reported a few days ago in a correspondence from New York, an answer - taking all the risks involved - was attempted by the director of the Los Angeles Times and former managing director of the Washington Post, Kevin Merida, during the traditional alumni meeting of Columbia University. “I love paper – Merida began – and I like having it in my hand, leafing through it, choosing the section to read. I like the care with which we print it. But it is useless to fool ourselves: paper newspapers will disappear between one and a maximum of five years. The vast majority will go digital-only or shut down.”

Already digital: it is the present and will increasingly be the future of information but its not an easy road. Far from it. There have been many problems in making digital information a pillar of democracy like paper newspapers for a long time at least three are unavoidable:

1) the quality of the information;

2) the business model and economic sustainability;

3) the rules of the game and the transparency of indexing.

Digital information: quality is not just writing in good shape but it is reliability, critical intelligence and creativity

Let's start by saying something that is obvious but which isn't entirely obvious: writing on the web is not like writing on paper newspapers. Just as reading on the web is not like reading paper editions. The playing field is different and if one does not think of writing only for himself but aims to reach as many readers as possible, he has to deal with the tyranny of SEO (the code that optimizes the activity of search engines) which regulates digital information through sophisticated algorithms.

On the web, the titles consequently become less elegant and romantic than those of paper newspapers but more direct and more essential if they want to capture the attention of readers studded with a flood of news. The playing field is different and you have to take this into account. But it's not just a problem of form and writing codes. If the Millennials and the generation of this century prefer sites and social networks to paper newspapers, there must be a reason and we need to understand it, trying to know and understand the issues that interest children and young people but also their ways of using information. starting from the speed and essentiality but also from the originality of the news.

This doesn't mean passively indulging the trends and tastes of the new generations of readers but intercepting them without presumption and, of course, without forgetting the more mature readers who go there all right on the web. Ban fake news and always introducing critical elements that stimulate reflection are the first things to do but not the only ones. In the end quality pays off and even the less expert reader sooner or later understands whether the information is truthful or not, whether it is independent (which does not mean aseptic) or not, appreciates the competence if it develops in a clear and understandable form of expression and if it succeeds to be – in the themes as in the titles – captivating and creative.

Digital information: who pays for it?

Even the best website in the world won't have long life if it doesn't find a business model capable of ensuring its economic sustainability. Digital free cannot be eternal and quality costs money. This is why web newspapers are increasingly oriented towards paid information (in whole or in part) which integrates the proceeds of advertising which is a holy hand if it does not become – as in many cases happens – too invasive and such as to annoy the reader. But here comes another very delicate issue, also raised by Merida: online information, if done with professional rigour, does it deserve public funding or not? If the State finances agencies and newspapers that would never stand alone and sell a few thousand copies, why should online information sites be discriminated against? Without false hypocrisy, it is a problem on the table if you want independent and quality information. And sooner or later it will have to be addressed.

Digital information: the importance of independent regulators

But the present and the future of digital information cannot fail to deal with the rules of the game and with the need not to entrust them to the Wild West or to web giants who monopolize information and advertising. Let's start with a simple problem: why the fate of so many sites in the world must be entrusted to mysterious indexing of the big search engines that establish arbitrarily - on the basis of algorithms that no one knows - which articles to value and which not? After years of laxity and complacency towards the Internet giants, finally the European Parliament has recently approved the Digital Services Act which regulates digital information and which will oblige the big motors to make the algorithms with which they select the news to be circulated transparent. When will it happen it will be a revolution.

But there is another problem, which sooner or later will have to be tackled even if nobody talks about it: it is right that the accounting of visits to an online site, on which advertisements depend in no small way, should be entrusted to a private search engine which , as we have seen, operates according to arbitrary and mysterious criteria, or would it not instead be the case to entrust it to an independent public body such as – for example – Agcom or the Antitrust?

Now digital information, despite having grown exponentially, still lives in its confused adolescent state: it has yet to become an adult but it will only become so if and when it will face and solve the problems that stand in its way.