Newspapers have passed the first two phases in the development cycle, thus they operate in a declining market. Differentiation in a declining market requires a radical and hence disruptive form of differentiation in order to stay alive as a company, not as a product.

1. Competitive Differentiation
A study on the past, present and future of newspapers
by Erik Lydecker, Freelance Concept Developer

2. Intro
The focus of competitive differentiation, as it may sound
obvious, is to set your brand apart from the current
competition. Differentiation can take various forms. It
partly depends on the market development phase. Is it an
emerging, mature or declining market? Newspapers have
passed the first two phases in the development cycle, thus
they operate in a declining market. Differentiation in a
declining market requires a radical and hence disruptive
form of differentiation in order to stay alive as a company,
not as a product.

3. Concept
News, a term which originated as a plural form of "new", is
the communication of selected information on current
events. Whether its on a cave wall, paper, tv or a digital
surface, the fundamental concept is the same.

4. 1609 : read
The fundamental concept of news is probably as old as
modern human beings, so roughly 200 thousand years.
However the first printed form of newspapers is only 400
years old, with the Strasbourg Relation being one of the
first. The first ”modern newspaper” came in 1804.
Hence newspapers is nothing ”new”, it’s just a formal
enhancement, following the developments in technology.
The medium by which news are spread changed from
handwritten sheets to printed to categorized double-sided
news-papers.

5. 1920 : listen
Moving forward, news was going to take yet another
major formal changes during the 20th century. The
intoduction of the commercial radio in the 1920s.
People didn’t have to read to get the ”news” any more,
they just had to listen. Going from paper to radios also
introduced the notion of ”realtime news”. Still news are
changing form, following technical innovations.

6. 1948 : view
Not long after the radio news came the intoduction of the
commercial TV in the 1950s.
People could now observe the actual news happening in
front of their very eyes. This was a big leap in the space of
news but detrimental for the old paper-based news. It
didn’t actualy affect newspapers that much, but it created
another medium, a competetive in the flow of news.

7. 1995 : internet
The fourth major formal change came in 1995, when the
internet came on stage.
The introduction of the internet is seen as the beginning
fo the end of the traditional newspapers. The internet
being coupled with a new device, the computer, changed
the focus of people. The computer replaced everything we
had so far, the radio, TV, books and newspapers. Firstly as
change of news source.

8. 2010 : mobile
The fifth major formal change came as early as 1995,
when the idea of ”tablet news” was being developed,
some 15 years before the iPad came in 2010. But reading
news with comfort on a tablet really began with the iPad.
People could now, not only listen an view news, but carry
it with them. So news became mobile and instant. You are
being notified when a particular news event takes place.

9. 2015 : social
With the rise of social media, news changed form, from
centralized and controlled to open-sourced. People
realized that they could get the news from thousands of
sources. This led to the major sources and channels of
news being non-vital anymore, hence they lose ground.
If I need news from the events in ”Syria” I just go to
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or any of the thousands
of blogs out there. The fundamentals of news has now
changed.

10. Conclusion
Looking back at the history of newspapers and news in
general I strongly believe that the ”news industry” need a
whole new take on the concept of news. It’s not only about
the look and feel, ie the UX/UI of news, or the ”smart
features”. We are looking a radical conceptual change of
news in conjunction with a disruptive take on UX/UI.
Some of the few concept I would like to introduce
randomly are ”intelligent news”, ”augumented news”, ”just-
in-time news” and ”ubiquitous news”. With it’s core being
”personal news”. It’s not anymore about ”the news”, it’s
more about ”my news”.

11. Ubiquitous
News can be read, heard or seen everywhere. Be it
mobile, tablet, watch, computer, tv, wall, table, ceiling,
floor, etc. All surfaces will eventually become digital.
Everything we can touch will become digital. Every digital
surface is a place for news.
This means that newspapers need to look into how people
will read the news ”on the table” in 10 years. They need to
work on that today.

12. Just-in-time
The notion of just-in-time originated in the car industry,
but makes perfect sense to news.
The future of news will be at the right time and space, for
each and everyone. There is no ”right time fits all”
anymore.

13. Augumented
Augumented reality is a perfect space for news. Using
geolocation and spacial variables. In combination with
just-in-time and ubiquity, this could transform the concept
of news dramatically.
Using space to present news is more natural than
mapping news to a certain ”abstract” geolocation.

14. Intelligent
News will become more and more intelligent in relation to
the whole of mankind, your continent, country, city,
person.
Artificial intelligence will play its role. Humans will put no
effort in browsing, it just has to be the right news. So
newspapers will walk the marketing walk and understand
their readers more and more.

15. Personal
This all boils down to ”me”.
The movie Minority Report showed us this in 2002. Your
news are not my news. News that affect every sole on this
planet is ”world news” and there is very few of them as we
know. One newspaper will not fit all sizes, no matter if its
analog or digital. A newspapers can no longer place it self
in a category, it’s sole purpose is to give me the news that I
want and need everywhere, just-in-time, augumented and
intelligent. Period. Nothing else will survive the coming
years.

16. Final
There will be a radical ”shift in power”, from the editorial
rooms to the minds of people. This will happen whether
newspapers want it or not. The whole concept of
centralized control was destroyed the day the web was
born.
The sooner newspapers realize this fact the faster they will
leave a declining market and enter an emergin market.
This requires disruptive innovation and radical change at
an organizational level.

17. Thanks for your time