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“The world needs ­ desperately needs ­ what newspapers do,” said William Powers , the media columnist for The Nation magazine in the United States and author of “Hamlet¹s Blackberry,” an essay on the enduring power of

paper.



Digital media have well-known advantages, but many people often overlook the things that print does better, he said. Newspapers would do well to exploit these qualitative advantages. Among other things, paper “frees up the brain

to think,” he said.



“Paper¹s great strength is that it allows the mind to settle down” into that peaceful deep-dive state in which we do our best thinking. This state is much harder to achieve when we¹re reading in the digital medium, where there is endless information, and so many possible tasks to undertake at any moment. On the internet, there is no beginning and no end.



Though the limitless internet is “wonderful in many ways,” its vastness is also its “greatest flaw,” said Mr Powers, who is currently writing on book on the history and enduring appeal of paper.



“When you¹re reading an article on a screen, your mind is conscious of all the other information that¹s just a click away ­ from your inbox to the latest headlines to your bank account to a billion You Tube videos. Thus, instead of escaping other demands on your attention as you read, you are mentally fending off those demands every moment you¹re at the screen.”



The fact the paper is “disconnected from the digital grid” isn¹t a negative attribute ­ it¹s paper¹s “secret weapon” and bears scrutiny, he said.



“In a multi-tasking world where pure focus is harder and harder to come by, I believe print media¹s seclusion from the Web is an emerging strength. Paper is a still-point for the consciousness, an escape from the never-ending busyness and burdens of the screen. It¹s an island in the chaos. Rather than everything all the time,paper¹s slogan could be “just

this one thing.”



Mr Powers said newspapers should do more to increase the public¹s awareness of such issues.



“Much of the media coverage of digital technology reads like product marketing. New digital devices are released, and journalists cover them the way they cover new movies. There¹s a cheerleading to the whole exercise, an air of hype,” he said.



“By focusing almost exclusively on what¹s new and hot in the technology marketplace, we are missing the larger picture. We aren¹t helping people understand and organise their technological lives. I think this is an area

where the public craves insight and guidance that they¹re not receiving. It¹s crucial that we all learn to think more intelligently about our devices. Not just how they work, but how they fit into our lives. We need to ensure that the devices work for us, rather than us working for them.”



Mr Powers was the keynote speaker at the 11th Readership Conference, which drew hundreds of newspaper executives to Amsterdam to examine strategies for increasing newspaper readership, in both print and digital platforms, in difficult times. His full presentation can be found at http://www.wan-press.org/article17905.html (download from the bottom of the page).



Summaries of all conference presentations can be found http://www.wan-press.org/amsterdam2008/home.php .



The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom and the professional and business interests of newspapers world-wide. Representing 18,000 newspapers, its membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 11 regional and world-wide press groups.



Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr