Hi Blog. Working on my next Japan Times column, due tomorrow (and this one is pretty tough going–I’ve got too much to say).<\/p>\n
But here’s something you might find interesting. Interview with Yukiko Ogasawara, President of the Japan Times, in the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan’s “No.1 Shimbun”. Even a citation from Debito.org, thanks!\u00a0 Debito in Sapporo Things could hardly have been worse when Yukiko Ogasawara became president of the Japan Times last March. She faced the aftermath of wide-ranging job cuts, a precipitous drop in the newspaper\u2019s circulation, and fierce, growing competition from Internet news sites, expat bloggers and the rest of the so-called new media.<\/em><\/p>\n Her father, Toshiaki Ogasawara, the chairman of plastic parts and components manufacturer Nifco Inc., bought the Japan Times in 1983. This year The Japan Times celebrated its 110th anniversary. Daughter Ogasawara says she is determined to increase circulation and put the paper back on a firm financial footing. But with the Japan Times losing money, and far more commercially successful print media also feeling the pinch, is it even worth trying?<\/em><\/p>\n Blogger Debito Arudou recently triggered a lively debate with an impassioned plea for the Japan Times\u2019 survival. He argued that the broadsheet had a special role to play as the \u201conly independent newspaper in Japan.\u201d<\/a> Putting the opposite case, Mark Devlin, publisher of the Japan Today news website recommend people \u201cjust let the damn thing die \u2026 there is a slim possibility that some new blood would come along and resuscitate it.\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n So which is it? Is the Japan Times a dinosaur doomed to extinction or a phoenix about to rise from the ashes of the print media? The No. 1 Shimbun recently spoke to Yukiko Ogasawara in her office.<\/em><\/p>\n ======================<\/p>\n
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\n The future of print: \u201cThe newspaper business still has a few years left here\u201d
\nby Tony McNicol. Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan No.1 Shimbun December 3, 2007<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.fccj.or.jp\/node\/2993<\/a>
\nCourtesy of the author.<\/p>\n