I have been fortunate to be connected with Indian Newslink almost from the day I landed in New Zealand seven years ago.
I have seen it grow from just another ethnic tabloid into an institution that has earned appreciation and respect from readers, who read it with confidence about its authenticity and unbiased views.
It has created annual events that are awaited eagerly; events such as the Indian Business Awards, Sir Anand Satyanand Lecture series and Indian Sports awards.
The newspaper has definitely defied the downward trend faced by some bigger names in the print media.
The real threat
According to ‘Future Exploration Network,’ an organisation working on predicting the future, newspapers in the present format will cease to exist in 2040 from the world. More importantly, they will become extinct by 2024 in Australia and New Zealand.
How accurate this prophecy is, only time will tell, but the writing on the wall is absolutely clear: the newspaper industry is in the process of reinventing itself.
The advent of Television had brought the first challenge to the print media, but it survived due to the drawbacks of TV news, which were (a) a lack of portability of TV (b) the need for commercial breaks (c) fixed time schedules (d) absence of any opportunity to internalise the news while watching.
These drawbacks ensured that the News round-up on the idiot box did not decimate the newspaper industry.
However, with the rapid growth of technology, smartphone apps, social media and micro-blogging sites; many of the disadvantages of electronic media have become things of the past and one can literally ‘read’ or ‘watch’ news as it happens anywhere in the world or even while in outer space.
This is the world that Indian Newslink has to grow into and make sense of it.
Becoming smart
My desire is to see a very robust, updated website of the newspaper that boasts of live updates, tweets, blogs, even a mobile version of Indian Newslink. With more than 100,000 people of Indian origin in New Zealand, there is bound to be good support to such an effort, if made by this pioneer in ethnic media.
I wish the newspaper all success in its future endeavours and am ready to be of any assistance if required.
Manish Tanna is a teacher by profession and Managing Director of VMindUrBiz Services Limited.
We gratefully acknowledge ‘Future Exploration Network’ for the Global Survey Chart appearing in this story. ‘Future Exploration Network’ assists major organisations globally to gain insights into the future and develop strategies that create competitive advantage. It has offices in Sydney (Australia), San Francisco (US) and London (UK).
