Remember when publishers created dedicated teams to explore the embryonic digital market, adapting copy that had been originated for print? UK-based consultant Dietmar Schantin reckons it’s time to repeat the process… only for print itself.

In an INMA media leaders blog this week, he looks back to the late 1990s, when media organisations experimented with digital formats through small, focussed teams that “enriched” content and created tailored stories.

With history “repeating itself”, Schantin (pictured) believes there’s an urgent need to create structures for print’s future. “If print is to survive, it must be treated as its own business unit, not as an obstacle to digital growth,” he says.

With the belief that delay will only make it harder to compete in a digital-first world, he says the time to act is now.

Once a studio manager at the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation, the UK-based Austrian is now principal of IFMS Media, with projects at the UK’s Telegraph Media Group, Handelsblatt in Germany, Ringier Switzerland, the Hindustan Times, the New Zealand Herald and Dow Jones on his CV.

In his INMA blog, he says integrating print and digital under one roof is still holding back digital growth, with commitments to print “slowing down the ability to create compelling, subscription-driven digital content.

“Many newsrooms still produce stories to ‘fill the newspaper’ rather than because they add value to digital – and sometimes even not to print readers.”

Schantin acknowledges an audience “willing to pay for the premium print newspaper”, and says a dedicated staff should serve this need. “It’s time for the next step: fully separating print from digital, allowing both to succeed on their own terms.”

He says each phase of the evolution of digital transformation – convergence, digital-first, mobile-first, and the current subscription-driven phase – required a mindset shift. But he says print “has remained a dominant factor in newsroom mindsets and workflows”, influencing editorial decisions, news meetings, and content strategies, “even in digital-first newsrooms”.

The presence of print in daily operations – even in some newsrooms that have already started automated print production – “creates constraints limiting the ability to fully commit to digital growth,” Schantin says.

What he describes as producing content “simply to avoid blank pages” is not a sustainable editorial strategy, and he claims maintaining a dual-focus newsroom creates structural inefficiencies hindering digital growth.

Print influences are to blame for “text-heavy storytelling” and a mismatch with readers, while cost constraints have led to a reduction in hyperlocal news and community coverage. “A newsroom made up of journalists in their 20s and 30s will struggle to fully understand the needs and interests of a print readership in their 50s and 60s,” he says, adding that the result is that print subscribers feel underserved, further accelerating print’s decline.
He advocates “inverting the model” to create a focussed print team that curates relevant digital content, adds “content such as hyperlocal news, community updates, and features with no digital value”… and leveraging automation and AI to help with creation and layout.