Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/439085
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 28 DECEMBER 2014 Opinion 15 There was once print! Saviour Balzan E veryone has his own tale for the year. Everyone is caught up in his little world and believes that the rest is quite irrelevant. The one thing that saddens me is the large number of people who do not read or who are unaware of what is happening around them. Very similar to those who are lost in counting their thousands and millions and cannot quite fathom the idea that their riches are basically the fruit of other people's low income and miserable subsistence. Those who shun the daily news, even the tabloid news, use social media such as facebook as their source of information and inspiration. I believe facebook has won because it is shallow, it deals with people and it offers the best gossip machine one could ever want. Most are lost in chatter and self- promotion. Some in a decadent and self- conceited way. And this is not a Maltese thing, sadly it is applicable the world over. But I guess appearing like a fool and pasting oneself on the social media for everyone to see is not irrelevant to most people. Everything becomes a charade, including charity. Nothing is done in silence and furtively. Everyone wants to declare what they are doing. The last substantial news that hit the stand this year was all about political responsibility. The subject was like discussing whether aliens were sexless or had a sex. Politicians and the media knew what they were talking about, but most people out there had no clue. So a minister refuses to resign, and a majority of people sort of argued that the minister had done nothing improper because he had not shot at the car. The argument and concept of 'on my watch' was completely alien to them. Last Monday's 'Reporter' on TVM, left me horror-struck at the superficial arguments put forward – I had with me some of my journalist colleagues. Joe Azzopardi of Xarabank did not quite agree with my 'on my watch' approach, and 'the neither here nor there' Andrew Azzopardi went so far as to question whether I would resign as a journalist. What a Dummkopf! The journalist who made most sense was Pierre Portelli, the man who runs The Independent, who ups the ratings of his online site – copied on a MaltaToday format – by the automatic refreshing of the pages every so many minutes to give the impression that there are more page views and visitors. Portelli, a Nationalist die-hard by all means, had the best and strongest arguments and knows where future trends are going. It was against this background that here at MediaToday we ventured in 2014 to create our own tailor-made site, moving away from a private company that then immediately ventured off and worked out an online site for the same competitor. Consciously we built a platform for our site that will serve us for the years to come. Together with MaltaToday, this year we also launched illum.com.mt and Malta's only food site, Gourmettoday.recipes and more is yet to come. We seriously do not see our Sunday newspaper disappearing but we are very conscious that printed newspapers are facing a very facing serious threat. All printed dailies, including The Times of Malta, are having to deal with serious falls in their readership, as readers abandon print and move to smart phones and computers for their news. This is made even worse by the fact that young people simply are not interested in the news. They are not only atheistic but smug and narcissistic – uninterested in what is going on around them. But the internet has not only dealt a blow to print, it has served to create a free space and stand for everyone to say their own little bit. And most of them do, in the same awkward and 'awesome' way Fox news does. That is, very American and shallow in style. We have become infected with the hollowness of American culture. Most of us have become miniature queens of bile, offering forbidding opinions with the usual venom and hate. And the bad news is that it will only get worse and nothing can stop it. Hopefully it will only self-destruct one day. The question to ask is of course, is there room for a newsroom. The answer to that is yes. And apparently there is also room for different newsrooms. Political, left and right, liberal and conservative. Of course not everyone sees it that way. There are those that would love to be alone in the market, but we have all filled up our little niche. And when we do overlap, and we do, some fail and others manage on. At MediaToday we strive to stand up for the things we believe in. One need not dig deep to discover them. It is all about the story behind the story. It is all about memory and context, transparency, gender issues, environmental and social concerns, the great divide between the rich and poor and political responsibility, institutional reform and relaying the news in an unadulterated form. We do not always get it right but sometimes or most of the time we do and in these last 15 years we have changed more than we actually believed we could have. In today's edition, one can read a letter from the former Home Affairs Minister, Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. Reading between the lines one can see that the man is hurt. But the story and the opinions we have written are not based on misgivings or vendettas. If there is a thankless job for the politician then it is a similar experience for most journalists. If my job was to hurt people, I would become a frustrated blogger. My job is to relay the news, irrespective of what. From this side of the fence, I have had to face many hurt politicians, Lawrence Gatt, Charles Mangion, John Dalli, Lawrence Gonzi, Alfred Sant and of course Manwel Mallia. They are all human with strong emotions and most of the time they find it very difficult to accept that they have to go or that they have failed. From this side of the border we have had to convey the story no matter what. It has not been easy. A Happy New Year to all. @saviourbalzan Printed newspapers are facing a very serious threat. All printed dailies, including The Times of Malta, are having to deal with serious falls in their readership, as readers abandon print and move to smart phones and computers for their news