IPublish or perish: challenges facing the Québec press in the digital age

Abstract

Once more in their history, newspapers are facing the challenge of new technologies threatening their very existence. They have had to adapt previously to radio broadcasting and television networks. More recently, the newspaper press has been threatened by the development of the commuter free press. Now, newspapers must find a way to survive the Internet’s competition in the digital era. The challenge is technological and economic, but there is more involved. Behind these technological innovations and along with the financial problems lie deep cultural and political transformations. Reading habits and the way people obtain information are changing. Most Twitter addicts are not prone to reading long and complex articles. This is a tendency that was initiated with the success of the daily tabloids, reinforced by radio and television newscasts and, more recently, with free newspapers distributed on mass public transportation sites like the subway. The aim of this kind of media seems to be always to find shorter and faster ways of communication. With the Internet, people do not have to wait for the morning paper to be informed, nor even the next hour for the radio or television headlines. They can get a summary of the latest news on a lot of websites, on their smartphone, their tablet or their laptop. If they want more, they can find it through a quick search on a browser. Countless blogs and wikis have opened access to ever-increasing sources of information. Do citizens wish to participate in a debate on a given question? They can do it through the social media that have considerably enlarged the space of opinion circulation. All these cultural changes have an impact on the news industry and on political life as well. What is the future of newspapers in the digital era? Do they have a role to play or