It dawned on me today. When I wake up in the morning these days, I don’t have the urge to read a newspaper. Increasingly, I tell myself that there is no time to flip through pages and read detailed editorial pages. Is this shortage of time or just addiction to digital media? What I actually wake up to every morning are WhatsApp messages, Facebook statuses or trending headlines on popular digital news sites. The digital media has really seeped into our daily lives and I wonder will the newspaper become extinct in future? According to a research by The Future Exploration Network, print newspapers would be extinct in USA by 2017. The research also shows that by 2040 no one will be reading newspapers around the globe. The ACI has reported that the top reason the predicted death of print newspapers is easy access to mobile devices. I spoke to some people to find out what they think about newspapers being extinct. Will they miss the morning headline in the beautiful black ink? “Oh! Their extinct is near. In my society hardly anyone has subscribed a newspaper. I myself get the morning dose of news on my phone,” says a 30-year-banker Sunil Yadav. A group of company executives says they don’t have to take a look at the headlines. At the same time, medical practitioner Charu Mishra says, “Whatever is trending comes on the Twitter feed”. However, there is a group of people who think the real pleasure of reading the news is via print medium. “My morning ritual is incomplete without the newspaper and tea,” says Dr. Viren. But he does say that there are times I do check what is trending on Yahoo. Even my mother says that her Sunday is well spent only when she rummages through every page of the Sunday supplement. However, we cannot ignore that the number of newspaper readers are declining and according to research conducted by McKinsey & Co. that was commissioned by The New York Times, digital media is the flavor of the future.
