The news spread quickly a year ago, and deserved the attention of all readers, those who enjoy printed paper and those who feel comfortable going from section to section in publications edited on the web, either from a mobile phone or from a computer.
There is no doubt that the change is here to stay. On January 1, 2020, the newspaper El País stopped publishing its print edition on the American continent, and in the same month but this year, the newspaper Ámbito Financiero of Buenos Aires did the same with its paper version. Two small examples of a trend that is consolidating, and the process is more traumatic: in that 2020 cited in the United States alone, sixty newspapers closed their doors. The crisis of the written press today seems irreversible, the fall in advertising revenues and sales of its copies makes us think in principle of the most auspicious scenario, which is built by a development of its digital versions with an increase in subscribers and sponsors. But the most rigorous studies speak of a "news desert" with important communities that are informed through national multimedia without powerhouses generating local information. This phenomenon, however, is resisted by small communication ventures that are published on FM radio and other online media, alternatives that do not require large economic investments and that shelter the passionate commitment of those responsible.
Without saying goodbye
A few days ago a copy of the last printed edition of the oldest newspaper in the world came into my hands, courtesy of Luis Vega, a cousin living in Austria, to whom I had entrusted the task of obtaining that testimony of our time. Turning its pages meant understanding the pain of so many professionals involved in its publication, many of whom have now permanently left their profession, and others who have adapted to the digital version. The world is changing and not understanding it becomes a real problem.
It happened on June 30, 2023. Its price was 1 euro.
The message launched with the last printed issue, “Without saying goodbye”, sought to find a hopeful gesture, perhaps guided by the desire not to take a leap into the void... This story has as its protagonist the Wiener Zeitung newspaper, from Vienna, whose first issue was published on August 8, 1703 under the name Wiennerisches Diarium, until it was renamed in 1780. For more than a century it was a private enterprise and from 1812 it became the official government newspaper, moving in 1857 to an edition directed by a group of public institutions. It survived ten emperors and twelve presidents, and new times put an end to its printed edition.
Although the AFP agency believes that the initial circulation was 4,500 copies, it is difficult to accept that this number was so high in those years of widespread illiteracy, with a small wealthy and educated class. Three hundred and twenty years later, it was publishing 24,000 copies a day when a directive from the European Union warned member states to abolish the obligation to publish the official bulletin in print. In Austria, this rule provided the most important financial resources to the Wiener Zeitung, which had had a digital edition since 1995.
In the midst of changing reader habits, this was a hard blow for the oldest printed newspaper in the world. Will it survive the change suffered? Without a doubt, it is an enormous challenge. Readers exist, the key is to find the right formula in terms of information always attentive to maintaining an economic balance.
For many, there is nothing more useless than yesterday's newspaper. Such volatility of news is the Achilles heel of the industry itself, which is why specialized and investigative journalism is gaining prominence through more developed articles, destined to survive in the maelstrom. Today, the maelstrom of information that reaches us through the most diverse means continues to claim victims, and among them, the printed editions of newspapers are its favorites.