Newspapers leave young people cold

New York Times (NYT) recently appointed 'futurist-in-residence' has claimed that young readers do not have an 'emotional attachment to paper'.

This is not just a US trend. It is true too in the UK. The impact on media relations is obvious and needs to be part of campaign plan development.

Last week the NYT announced the appointment of Michael Rogers as futurist-in-residence - to keep the organisation abreast of how technological developments will affect the newspaper industry notes Journalism.co.uk.

Rogers, a former new-media executive with the Washington Post who writes the Practical Futurist column for MSNBC, told I Want Media that despite great technological advancements newspapers would not disappear, to be replaced by mobile and internet editions, for some time.

For a long time the emotional relationship between print and its readers has been well understood and is based on the research of Guy Consterdine.

At present, it is holding up the circulation of consumer magazines. I see this being in danger as mobile starts to replace such magazines. The emotional attachment to the mobile device is an area of development that needs more research but is already apparent.