Latency has become a massive issue in the delivery of all media, particularly news. We live in a time where on-demand is the norm and products that fall outside that are looking increasingly obscure and irrelevant.
As time goes on the of the period of latency that is acceptable and qualifies information as being “news” is decreasing. 24 hours used to be fine, it was an acceptable latency. Now only minutes and seconds will do.
Sure they only write the last bits that go in newspapers minutes before it’s printed but the latecy to the next edition of the paper is 24 hours at best.
The latency involved with publishing a hardcopy newspaper makes it completely irrelevant to a contemporary audience, who demand accuracy and the very latest, most accurate information. Yesterday’s rumours won’t do.
I write this after having seen somebody on the tube reading the second edition of The Sun which does clearly carry the news that Raoul Moat is dead, I had thought when I saw this “oh that’s good they managed to get it in the paper” it’s not really that good because I saw it first thing this morning on the Guardian website after having seen it on BBC Breakfast, I’ve seen all the pictures and all the video I need to, what can The Sun possibly offer me on this story? Literally nothing.
By now the story that the man was reading on the tube is probably completely out of date, and potentially misleading if any fact has now changed. I’m writing this at 16:41 on Saturday the 10th of July, the Guardian have the story” Raoul Moat killed by single gunshot in standoff with police” which was last updated at 16:18, just 20 minutes ago, so some facts have changed, this is news. The newspaper the man on the tube was reading isn’t news anymore it’s a reference, it covers events that happened yesterday, yesterday isn’t news anymore, it’s history.
It also isn’t news that England are no longer in the World Cup, it’s history a minute; a second after everybody in the country watched the whistle blow at the end of the game. So why do “news” papers all run “England are out of the World Cup” front pages? We already know that! It is completely irrelevant to tell us yet again with your clever headlines, which aren’t funny anymore, we’ve already seen the virals!
The day we went out of the World Cup I’d already read 5 or 10 news stories online analysing every possible angle on why we went out and I’d seen interviews from all the world’s top pundits on TV. If anything the same news being on the front page would make me not want to buy the news(reference)paper, there is no value there for me at all. Contemporary audiences demand value.
The only way you can now cover news is through a latency free digital medium. My generation will not buy newspapers when we’re 35/40. No way. Newspapers have 14/15 years left, it could be less, it won’t be longer. After that all news coverage will be digital, actually it already is!
