Page 19 - Convergent Journalism an Introduction Writing and Producing Across Media

Technology

Convergence also makes news available when people want it and
in the form they want it, rather than expecting audiences to consume
news when networks and newspapers make it available. Audiences have
fragmented, and intermedia competition has increased. Paul Horrocks,
editor-in-chief of the Manchester Evening News in the United Kingdom,
summarized the situation this way: “We must reinvent our product to
be more competitive and [to] satisfy our consumers.” Convergence
was the answer, he said, because it reached audiences eager to receive
information in a variety of forms (Pascual, 2003, p. 34). In April 2004,
John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America, told
the group’s annual meeting that traditional “ink on paper” companies
had the chance to transform themselves into more broad-based media.
People were demanding instant content on what mattered to them and
newspapers had to exploit technology to provide that content. “People
want to consume their media where, how and when they choose,”
he said.
Some people in advanced societies tend to be time poor but asset
rich. In some parts of the United States the battle for people’s dispos-
able time has become more vigorous than the fight for their disposable 9
income. These people tend to demand convenience, and they are usu-
ally willing to pay for it—hence the surge in online commerce and
subscription services, drive-through services, the wide range of take-
out food outlets, and the boom in purchase of labor-saving devices.
People grab their news in the form that is most convenient. The Wall
Street Journal’s front-page summary column, “What’s News,” recog-
nizes the needs of busy businesspeople. Brazilian editorial manager
Ruth de Aquino has suggested that the concept of news is chang-
ing and becoming “more personalized, more service-oriented and less
institutional” (2002, p. 3).

Technology

Almost three in four American people had Internet access at home
as of early 2004. A Nielsen/NetRatings survey reported in March
2004 that about 204.3 million people, or 74.9 percent of the pop-
ulation, receive Internet access via telephone modems at home. This
was a big jump from the 66 percent reported a year earlier. The vast
bulk of businesses provided fast access at work. Broadband boosts
convergence because people can quickly download bandwidth-greedy
content such as multimedia. In 2003, the number of American homes