By Nathan Johnson
The New York Times, since its founding in 1851, has published the famous slogan 'All the News That's Fit to Print' in the upper-left corner of its masthead, but the time may come when at least one word of that slogan will have to be changed to reflect new journalistic parameters.
Of the world's many economic sectors falling on hard times, print journalism in general and daily newspapers in particular are faring quite poorly. I was surprised to learn earlier this year that one of the daily newspapers from my old US hometown of Seattle, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, was to print its last edition after more than a century of publication, and to carry on as an online-only product. Other papers across the United States and around the world are either making the switch to online in order to survive or closing up shop for good. News services everywhere are shedding staff or letting go entire departments, such as foreign or national desks — much to the detriment of overall news coverage, to say nothing of those who now find themselves either unemployed or in the hunt for a new line of work.
Photo: Nathan Johnson
Green Horizon Online thus makes its debut during a time when the global economic horizon is less than auspicious; and economic considerations have indeed factored into the difficult decision to transform Green Horizon from a quarterly print source of regional environmental news and REC-related information to an internet-based product that can hopefully meet the same high standards of before while offering greater dynamism and flexibility. Of course, there are sundry environmental benefits in electronic-only publishing, and the months required to make this transition have provided ample opportunity for reflection on the ways in which media, economics and the environment are interlinked today.
Aside from worldwide economic malaise, two main reasons for today's sad state of print journalism are lack of revenue due to plummeting ad sales, and lower circulation due to falling subscription numbers. Ironically, the internet has played a high hand in both developments: Websites offering free classifieds have cut deeply into print advertising revenue, while online versions of established newspapers (available at no charge) can simultaneously drive up readership and force down subscription numbers. Also, the 'traditional' relationship between reader and publisher is undergoing a tectonic shift, and the jury is still out on whether these changes are for better or worse.
My reactions are mixed. The downside is that a majority of news outlets are shrinking their capacity for actual reporting. Journalists themselves now conduct less first-hand, on-site or in-person reporting, and much journalistic research is actually carried out in-office — i.e. online. Also, technologically-driven media are both a cause and effect of readers' reduced attention spans and preference for sound-bites and flashy, eye-pleasing graphics. In-depth reporting, even when a possibility, is often passed over in favour of more commercial options. Many others argue, not without justification, that reading long articles online is simply too hard on the eyes.
But there are significant upsides to online publishing. Quite a few, in fact. One, of course, is the fantastic ability to reach anybody in the world with access to a computer. This fact alone encourages dialogues and processes of information sharing that push beyond purely local boundaries or perimeters of circulation. Another advantage of online publishing, as opposed to print, is flexibility in terms of what and when one can publish. Not only are there new possibilities involving multimedia (video interviews, photo slideshows, real-time blogging, etc.), news reports can be updated as events take place, and the publication of items in general is easier, quicker and more environment-friendly than in print.
This last point is significant, especially from the standpoint of being the flagship publication for an environmental organisation. I read recently about an attempt to estimate the amount of trees sacrificed for the production of all of the Harry Potter books sold worldwide. While it is evident that work remains to be performed on the method of calculation, it seems fair to estimate that at least 4 million trees have been felled for these best-selling titles alone! It's therefore not terribly difficult to imagine the impact that the global publishing industry has on the world's tree reserves. And while it seems safe to say that Green Horizon in any format will never rival J.K. Rowling's hero for popularity, the decision to go electronic seems to be the best foot forward, both economically and environmentally.
I sincerely hope that Green Horizon Online will, with sufficient interest and sponsorship, improve and develop into a widely accessible and valuable source of environment-related news and information for years to come.
