"Not the end of the Story", Sunday Times Magazine, 15th April 2012

I read this article in the Sunday Times Magazine recently (15th April 2012) and it really got me thinking about a world without newspapers and what that might be like - not too nice I would say - personally I like to pick up a newspaper, flick through it etc and generally take my time over it. With the Sunday's , I read them throughout the week and magazines sit around even longer, (Ive only just got around to reading this piece now! ). It's not the same in front of a computer screen and you certainly don't linger over a lengthy feature as you might with a newspaper and a coffee, you grab the headlines and get on with the day.

'Not the end of the Story' explores what newspapers are doing to survive in the Internet Age and is by the journalist Tim Rayment, who began his career in Grimsby Telegraph. When I read it I thought I would share it with you but in tune with the article itself, it is behind a paywall so you have to subscribe to read it in full! So it seems that things are moving in this direction, Mr Rayment's concluding remark was that "the immediate future is multiplatform - on smartphones, tablets, traditional computer screens and printed paper with paywalls proliferating to try to fund the journalism."

So newspapers are not dead yet then?

Much is discussed in this article about the decline in newspaper circulation in the UK and around the world, particularly regional newspapers, and many points are made about the risk facing the industry. There is no doubt but the industry is at risk and giving news away for free online as papers have been doing has, in my view, potentially damaged many brands.

However, according to Rayment's article, papers like the Sunday Times and The Times are making more money now from subscriptions and online advertising than they were from advertising when their sites were free! What news papers seem to be doing is reinventing themselves and I believe that ultimately, this will benefit the reader in the form of better, more creative, interactive and exciting content both online and in printed papers.

Closer to home, our regional titles are being challenged as elsewhere but what I think we are seeing is a reinvention of the model with the introduction of apps, epapers and a mix of paid for digital formats and premium products helping to fund the newspapers so hopefully they will survive.

I for one hope that the newspaper is here to stay, in the same way that I hope books wont disappear, I am all for advances in technology but did I read somewhere that Long Playing records and turntables are making a comeback ......say no more...........!