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Diana David: Do Newspapers have a
future?
By Jiao Jie
PKU NEWS 2007--12—03
http://ennews.pku.edu.cn/news.php?s=196877209
Peking University, Beijing, December 3, 2007: Ms. Diana David, Regional Director of
Circulation & Business Development at the Financial Times Asia, delivered a lecture
entitled ‗Do Newspapers have a future?‘ in Zhifuxuan Classroom of China Center for
Economic Research on the afternoon of December 3.
First, Diana introduced the current situation of the newspapers industry. As external
factors, the development of internet and technology has given both threat and
opportunity to the newspapers. Internet has equipped anyone who is looking for
information, and the new force of ‗citizen‘ journalists and bloggers is challenging the
newspapers‘ development. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times hold the
views that the newspapers have to change as the expansion of internet, and they
have to focus on what they‘re good at – summarizing, prioritizing, analyzing and
reflecting on the news, providing unique and unexpected insights. However, some
major Medias and vast majority of editors are optimistic about future of newspapers.
Diana said, the Harris Poll in May, 2007 showed that ‗the online news and
information will supplant television network news as the leading news source over
the next five years, but newspapers will remain a vital source on their own, and can
become dominant if they successfully integrate online delivery as a part of what they
offer the public.‘
The World Association of Newspapers Congress in June, 2007 publicized the result
that the global circulation of newspapers was still up in 2006 especially in Asia, and
there were 450 million copies sold daily. Moreover, Asia has 70 per cent of world‘s
bestselling dailies, and China was the largest market with 96.6 million copies sold
daily, India and Japan are the 2nd and 3rd.
Referring to Financial Times (FT), Diana said the FT‘s mission is to be the gold
standard in global business news and analysis in print and online. After the lecture,
Diana and the students had a discussion about the future of newspapers and ‗What
should be the FT‘s global strategy?‘
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