Microsoft Corporation recently announced the "iLoo" (short for Internet Loo) - a high tech toilet with built-in internet surfing facilities! With "iLoo", you will be able to watch news while you spend time in the loo. And the electronic medium will finally enter the exclusive domain of the newspaper!

Reason for newspapers to worry? Not necessarily. As we found out after we took (another) look at the state of the print medium, specifically the newspaper.

But first, given the hubbub centred around the television, internet & convergence we start with a glance at the instant news business.

Instant News Business
If ever there was a doubt that TV News Channels are here to stay, then consider the following:
*Middle East region has seen announcements for a new TV News Channel every month, thanks to the recent Gulf War
*CNBC has just launched CNBC Arabiya from Dubai
*India has over a dozen TV News Channels
*France is about to launch its own CNN (Chirac News Network !)

The recent Gulf War has only fuelled the fire of the news hungry population of the world. Add the dreaded SARS outbreak along with the regular terrorist attacks across the globe and you have a new business model based on instant news. (While it is unfortunate that minor items are often "sensationalized" to make them news worthy, it is also true that Singapore based Mediacorp has launched a dedicated channels for SARS news.)

So what is the role of the newspaper in the new scenario?

The Daily Newspaper
Here is an interesting result of an ongoing survey conducted by Center for Media Studies, Delhi: TV news whets the viewers' appetite for news and encourages many to seek corroboration in newspapers. So while the TV news multi-media headline will continue to remain more sensational & "instant", it is likely to make the viewer grab the nearest newspaper for details.

Thus, the newspaper & the TV News Channel may complement each other in a way!
TV news reports on war & epidemics actually increase time spent on reading newspapers.

In the past few years newspapers have been emulating television with better packaging & more entertaining content. So you have newspaper pages dedicated to celebrities & high-profile (personal) events which were earlier in the realm of film, fashion & lifestyle magazines ("glossies").

Quite understandably, the new generation prefers to spend more time reading such pages over traditional news pages. This naturally brings down the average age of the newspaper reader. Often this may degenerate to a situation where celebrities get "coverage" based on some understanding with journalists. (Here we may mention that such practices are fairly accepted within the business & finance sections, where they are commonly referred to as "P.R.". Along with the recent disturbing reports of reputed dailies levying a fee for "news coverage".)

Newspapers continue to fill an important need with local classified ads.
And newspapers fill the void of 'homesick' readers - for example a number of expat Indians settled around the globe, subscribe to regional Indian newspapers - as much for local news as for the local obituary column.

Circulation growth of newspapers has been minimal. The latest U.K. ABC report has shown minor decline in almost all dailies (with very few exceptions). The last Indian ABC has highlighted the same trend except for Hindi newspapers.

Yet major newspapers like International Herald Tribune continue to "franchise" regional editions in local languages around the globe. This phenomenon is visible even with regional publications who are launching editions in other nearby countries.

This gives credence to the belief that the newspaper continues to play its original role (albeit mutated) as it adapts to the new scene by adding dimensions.