Commentary

Bend or Bust

Newspapers: you almost have to feel sorry for them. Once pillars of democracy that created presidents, won wars, and tried villains, lately they're besieged by circulation and editorial scandals, radical restructurings, layoffs and weak advertising, and they face an onslaught of new technologies. The Internet, in particular, has taken a whack out of the once almighty gazettes.

Indeed, 2005 was a grim year for newspaper equities. Knight Ridder, for example, lost about 21 percent of its value, and The New York Times Co. dropped about 35 percent. And 2006 isn't expected to be much better, at least for the print editions.

But perhaps technology can save newspapers after all. Consider flexible displays. The technology could be a solution to the industry's problems. Flexible displays meld personal computers and newsprint by importing live data into screens that can be rolled or stacked. Flexible displays, like old-fashioned paper, can be carried anywhere. The displays are potentially inexpensive, easy to use, work with available light, and most important, promise to keep the tactile relationship between reader and page.

One might think that newspapers, old and gray as they are, are stubborn about flexible displays because the concept seems like science fiction.

But the displays are real. There are already working prototypes. Samsung Electronics unveiled a 7-inch working screen last year. Meanwhile, Arizona State University has a 250,000-square-foot flexible display lab funded by the U.S. Army. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Philips Research, a division of Royal Philips Electronics, have teamed up to invest in research efforts.

"We currently have shown rollable display prototypes," says Hans Driessen, communications manager at Philips Polymer Vision, a division of Philips. "We plan to go into production by the end of this year. Among our forward-looking customer base, we are seeing enormous reaction."

Considering the potential for profit and reinvention flexible displays would allow, you'd think American newspaper companies would be leading the charge to adopt them. That's not quite the case.

"I feel like newspapers are just starting to lift their heads out of the sand," says Andrew Swinand, executive vice president and group client leader at Starcom Worldwide, which manages newspaper buying for the agency. "They are just beginning to embrace the digital world."

Statements by the leading newspaper companies seem to support Swinand's perspective. A New York Times Co. representative, when presented with an outline for this story, said: "We certainly follow developments, but we do not have anything to add to the discussion at the level you are investigating."

A representative for Gannett, publisher of USA Today, asked a similar question, replied flatly: "Sorry, no takers on this end." The Tribune Co. and Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The Wall Street Journal, failed to return calls and e-mails seeking comment.

The only newspaper company of any scale to respond, Knight Ridder, seemed much more interested in other new-media concepts. "It's more like we were looking past the technology into more platform-agnostic approaches that could work across all media," says Amy Dalton, marketing communications manager at Knight Ridder Digital.

When asked what newspapers may be thinking, Swinand notes, "Newspapers have a major value proposition/re-evaluation ahead. They are forgetting that they are in the news business and not in the paper business."
Next story loading loading..