The above has illustrated two things that on the one hand; news, information and knowledge production and consumption in South Africa and globally will continue as an ongoing process embarked upon daily by billions of people in an endeavour solely to improve their lives.
The impact of the new media to traditional media discussed above clearly indicates this. But at the same, it is also clear that the role of traditional media will continue, albeit, in hybrid formats that meet the needs of consumers.
The challenge to traditional media however, will not be limited to collapse through technological integration of traditional means of production and dissemination of news, information and knowledge, and participation of ordinary people in that process.
But the challenge will mount also in terms of measures taken to sustain traditional formats of news and information dissemination such as print newspapers.
With printed media, one of the greatest challenges facing the industry is its meeting consumer and society‟s demand for environmentally friendly processes of producing goods and services – processes and methods that eliminate carbon emissions and preserve nature.
As previously indicated, print media companies across the world are still reliant on highly vertically integrated companies for production and distribution of newspaper products, and core to which are multi-billion rand worth giant printing presses that consume billions of tons of paper drawn from forests of trees across the globe, ink from vast amounts of oil and similar products.
In addition, print companies either own or make use of transport companies to distribute their products to market with vehicles and other modes of transport that rely solely on carbon fuels such as coal and oil as well as other material increasingly viewed as high contributors to environmental degradation.
According to Enkvist, Naucler and Riese (2007) citing a report of the Integovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), „there is a broad scientific consensus about the link between global warming and greenhouse gas emissions resulting from human activity.‟
Enkvist, Naucler and Riese (2007: 37) state that about 60 to 70 per cent of the world‟s greenhouse gas emissions are energy related; the major sources being fossil fuels for transportation, heating of buildings and water, and power generation.
They state that whilst there are still uncertainties in scientific estimates; the IPCC report calls for a reduction in annual emissions from just under 50-billion tons of greenhouse gases today to between five and 10-billion or less in 2050 in order that the planet warms by no more than two degrees centigrade.
The extent to which the traditional media and print media specifically in South Africa and globally contributes to greenhouse emissions is only academic for its relevance as pressure is mounting on all business and industry globally to demonstrate conduct in their activities that is ethical or sustainable and central to which is contribution to the preservation of the environment in all areas of business activity.
As it is, the mounting pressure on sustainable business practices has led to measures being implemented to encourage and force institutions to scrutinise new and expansion projects that they support financial.
Prominent among these is the Equator Principles (Robinson 2006) adopted by major financial institutions for categorisation, assessment and management of
social and environmental risks in the project finance sector. In terms of these, generally; the financial institutions will not lend to companies that do not meet basic sustainable business practices.
3.5. CONCLUSION
Traditional mass media throughout the world is undergoing major transformation largely due to rapid advances in information communication technologies whose impact has been disruptive, yet generally beneficial to societies across the world, where accessible.
The major challenges brought about by the new technologies have included a forced integration of traditional media platforms – print newspapers, radio and television – but in addition, created new opportunity for other non-traditional media institutions as well as the public at large to be direct participants in the collection, processing and dissemination of news, information and knowledge historically undertaken by the mass media institution.
As result, both the media institutions and practitioners within it have been left shell shocked by the intensity and enormity of the challenge, leading some in the industry leaping in by aligning themselves with innovators in the new media paradigm as well as professionals in the field of journalism acquiring new skills that will allow them space to continue trade.
Generally however, the responses have been largely varied depending on the level of development of affected countries, and South Africa; while highly innovative in terms of adoption and adaptation of new technologies, has largely been left lagging behind.
Local mass media is still largely rooted to its old historical practices especially with regards to traditional print media, displaying little or no innovation in its processes and thereby leaving itself exposed to new global and local competitive and social forces that may eventually force it out of business.
In addition current capital investment trends on infrastructure such as printing presses and newspaper distribution modes are out of sync with global pressure on business to adopt sustainable business practices.
Many are still clinging on historical business structures and production processes that are increasingly becoming unacceptable against the backdrop of the global struggle against global warming.
Chapter 4 will look at the print media business structure and the challenges posed by printing and distribution of newspapers.
CHAPTER 4
PRINT MEDIA BUSINESS STRUCTURE
4.1 INTRODUCTION:
As briefly described in Chapter One, the printing and physical distribution of print newspapers is an involved process that remains among four key stages of producing and delivering the product to the market.
The first two stages which form the core function of a newspaper publishing company are the editorial and pre-press functions respectively, which effectively put a newspaper together - virtually ready for consumption by readers.
However, because this is a single, master copy of an edition, after these two primary stages; a print newspaper moves into the second and third final stages of production, which involve printing - or precisely duplication of the master copy- followed by packaging and finally, transportation to market (Rehn; 2002: 5).
In this Chapter, the focus will be on this traditionally critical second stage process of print newspaper production and distribution beginning with its brief history, the nature of the process and the inherent problems that are increasingly challenging it as a still viable business proposition going forward in the face of stiff and growing competition brought about by digital technologies that are fast eroding traditional print media and specifically print newspapers‟ value.
In seeking to pinpoint the specific challenges or problems considered as directly associated with or linking to traditional practice of printing and distribution of print newspapers, the study will look at practices at Avusa Media and specifically one of its flagship regional English dailies, The Herald in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, as indicated in Chapter One