Death stalks the evening press
I've previously criticised Manuel Ferrer for what I thought was a somewhat overtly dramatic and just a wee bit far-fetched conspiracy theory, but here his talent for melodrama really comes into its right, and the first few lines are beautifully written. So much so I forgot to contemplate if I really agree with him all the way (if it doesn't come across as well written, blame my hasty translation). I'm sure you could easily substitute Sweden with many other countries, and the account would still ring true, give or take a few minor details:
Death has walked side by side the evening press for a long time. Glided and waited for the right opportunity to sit down and talk business with the two major players... It is rumoured that they met in secret a few years ago. I wonder if Aftonbladet's editor-in-chief has told his successor Jan Helin of this meeting? But then of course: the circulation of the evening press has gone up and down during the entire 1900s, so why should the situation be radically different now?
The complicated answer is of course the structural change and the changing media landscape at large...
In twenty years, Sweden's evening newspapers have lost 60 per cent of their circulation on weekdays, and the imbalance between the ad- and circulation revenues remains. Hence there are only two courses to take: either continue selling already acquired rights within the media corporations - films, music, books and magazines - and hide a copy of the newspaper in the price. Or make the radical, and in the long term necessary, decision: ditch the paid paper edition and retreat to the web where the ad-revenues have moved already.
The evening newspaper that first makes the decision to close its paper edition, simultaneously realising that the journalism is not lost just because it changes platforms, will put itself in poll position for a long time to come....
Excerpt from an op-ed in Dagens Media by Manuel Ferrer (my translation)
