Fall of newspapers and the gulf in digital age

A film about a struggling newspaper won the Academy Award for best movie of the year, but even Hollywood's highest accolade cannot do much to save a business in decline. Indeed, Spotlight, which put the spotlight on a struggling newspaper's investigation division and is based on the true story of financially challenged The Boston Globe, may turn out to be more of a valedictory commemoration - a nostalgic, poignant farewell - than the impetus for an industry turnaround.

And talking about farewell, The Independent (print edition) bid us exactly that on March 26. But news is here to stay, in all sorts of formats - the news-bites are smaller, though, judging from recent trends. Have concentration spans shortened, or is the short form a necessity in an age of small screens? The online experience favors entertainment and eye candy - something snappy, something sweet. Quips, tweets, viral videos and catchy sound-bytes win the clicks that earn revenue. Long-form writing, reflective, investigative or otherwise, if it circulates at all, is mostly cannibalized from a shrinking pool of newspapers and magazines.

The traditional newspaper - a curated daily aggregation of diverse stories deemed newsworthy by an editor working with in-house writers, local reporters, foreign bureaus and supplementary selections from wire services - is looking like a thing of the past.