Technological Advances in the Print
industry – By David O’Grady
I have chosen to explore
Technological advances in
the print industry. I will investigate how these advances have affected the production and distribution in the print industry.
Recent
technological changes have had a huge impact on the print industry. There have been many changes in different areas of the print industry. Some changes include the following areas: Page layout and design, advances in photography, the role of the journalist, changes in distribution methods, on-line publishing, and employment in the print industry.
The layout and design of newspapers and magazines can now be prepared using better machinery and hardware. The revolution began in 1450 with the invention of the
printing press by Johannes Gutenberg. Newspaper layout was one of the first automatic processes with the help of computers. Before printing was invented, the layout and design of manuscripts had to be made by hand which was a very long operation that took many years to complete. Printing allowed for more copies of manuscripts to be made within a few weeks.
Technological advances in software have had a significant affect on the print industry. Newspapers use to have to rely on hot metal printing where molten metal, lead and antimony were used for headlines and text. In the 1960’s Quark Express was introduced to the US newspaper market. This software package allowed newspaper firms to design and layout their product in a new technological change by means of computer. Quark made it possible to publish material from the desktop. Quark allowed for editors to view the layout and design of a newspaper before it was printed.
Technology has changed the print sector greatly, especially its economy. It has appeared that newspapers and their producers are currently competing with other technologies such as the Internet. However, the economic industry continues to go from strength to strength. This can be seen through the economic development of Irish newspaper. For example, in January 2007, the Irish Daily Star reported higher circulation for 2006. However, looking at the effects on organisations in the print industry, we can see possible damages.
According to The Newspaper Industry Market Assessment, A negative effect on the economic side of the print sector is the fall in advertising revenues. In the past, newspapers had made money from advertising revenue and still continue to do so. However it is now reported to be at a lesser rate. There has been a fall in advertising expenditures for newspapers due to technological advances. An example of these are a news TV station such as Sky News, where news updates are broadcasted constantly and the headlines are reported every hour. This causes advertisers to readdress their methods.
Technological advances have not had a huge change to distribution methods in the print industry. Vans still deliver newspapers. We can see that the Internet has had a huge impact. Online publishing has made it possible for newspapers and magazines to publish their material over the Internet. People can subscribe to the newspapers and view them online. For example, the Irish Times have an online subscription where you can receive the latest news over the Internet.
Advances in software have helped the delivery of newspapers. According to Tara, McMeekin (referenced below), in the USA there is an application called RouteSmart that assists newspapers balance their delivery routes and their subscribers home delivery service. It was designed to reduce the distance that newspaper carriers have to travel. New advanced printers have also made it possible for a quicker distribution of newspapers. Newspaper Direct is a New York based print-on-demand company. In 2002 they were able to make a large number of international newspapers available during the Winter Olympics. They printed these newspapers on their advanced Xerox and Hewlett Packard laser printer.Newspapers from around the world were sent to the company in Portable Document Format (PDF), and the papers were printed.
McMeekin, Tara (2002): The International Journal of Newspaper technology: Associate Editor.
The distribution of print has also been enhanced by the use of mobile phones through text messaging. Many newspapers offer a service that allows you to receive daily news updates on your mobile phone. This has been very affective for distributing the product.
I believe that the future for the print industry is bright. Newspapers have so far been able to cope with radio, television and the Internet and this should not change in the future. I believe newspapers and magazines will adapt well to new technological advances. Upgrades in applications such as Quark express and photoshop will allow editors a lot more mobility and increase the speed of input.
Newspapers can trust the fermenting computer industry to perfect the technologies that will gradually replace their presses and delivery trucks.
New technology will play a key role in improving newsgathering and researching. The internet allows the journalist to sustain a better interaction with the audience and this will in time give the journalist a better understanding their reader’s interests. The system of hypertext allows people to view stories in more detail. It eliminates many obstructions such as the lack of space available for text. These advances also allow the reader to view stories and advertisements in their time. You don’t have to be turning pages to your preferred ages of interest.
David O’Grady
Contact: daveogrady19@eircom.net