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AFTER nearly 280 years, one of the world’s oldest continuously running journals, Loyd’s List print version, will cease at the end of the year as management unanimously agreed that the print industry is no longer a sustainable business and focus should be on the digital presence.

The journal, founded in 1734, announced this week that it will cease its print edition in December. The newspaper is widely regarded as the leading source of news and analysis for the global shipping market.

The newspaper’s management cited declining interest in the print edition as the impetus behind the move. A recent survey of Lloyd’s List readers found that less than 2 percent relied solely on the print edition for access to the newspaper’s content.

LLoyd’s List joins a long list of other journals and magazines that have fallen by the wayside such as the popular computer magazine, PCWorld, which stopped operating in 2008, computer shopper and laptop that followed suit in 2009 and then the greatest magazine of all time PC Mag which folded in December 2009 after having operated since 1982.

Nintendo and Info world have also confirmed that their publications will cease this December. Other non- technological popular print magazines like Newsweek, US News & World Report Seattle Post-Intelligencer stopped publishing a print edition in March 2009, with the Christian Science Monitor following suit.

PC Format seems to be the only big name still standing in the print edition of all technology magazines that ever existed.
This is but just one of the few examples that underlines the changing trends as the world drifts more towards the technology age.
While this might be a bitter pill to swallow for many, I believe that this change is inevitable and the time to prepare is now. Businesses and companies, especially those in the media, need to latch on to technology now or risk going out of business.

This is sad reality that chief executives and their chief technology officers need to live with or they will find themselves out of jobs.
During a recent discussion with a director of TechnoMag, Mr Wilson Mtetwa, we agreed that this trend is also coming to our shores and sooner or later the days for some of our local newspapers to grace our streets every morning are numbered.

We predict that within the next 10 years the newspaper and print media will have migrated to digital completely.
I am aware that some people will argue that Zimbabwe has not reached sufficient technological advancement levels to warrant this.

However, I believe we are already there judging by the rapid uptake in the Whatsapp platform as a viable instant messaging application.
So rapid is the uptake that the SMS platform is now a thing of the past. Ask yourself when was the last time you bought airtime for SMS? Yet just a few months back SMS was the “in-thing”.

Today more than four billion users are already using Whatsapp. In addition, the country’s mobile penetration has risen from a mere 12 percent to 99 percent in the past five years buoyed by a 34 percent increase in mobile penetration.

This major shift was reached way before the completion of major fibre optic installations. If this drastic shift can be attained in less than five years then surely the technology age has arrived in Zimbabwe and we can only ignore this massive development at our own peril.

To its credit our media industry has responded to the changes in technology through the introduction of new products which respond to the increasing needs of their readers.

The industry has woken up to the reality that the days where people used to wait for the main news sessions or fresh copy of the paper for breaking news are gone as news is being broken online and those organisations that break the news first are getting all the credits.

However, our media houses have not yet fully utilised technology. The Internet offers millions of options but it is not just about knowing the options but rather the expertise to apply the knowledge.

Facebook and Twitter alone are just basic fundamentals, they will not bring any magic to an organisation. How you post, interact and engage on all platforms matters much more than having a social network presence.

Properly defining the new revenue streams online is also critical. The questions that needs to be answered is are we ready to start shifting towards the new world order or are we waiting on bureaucracy, arrogance and shortsighted visions to get the best of us?

While most people might still fancy their hard copy everyday we should prepare for the inevitable. It’s all about a digital vision that really matters now.

• The writer is the founding editor of TechnoMag. More on Tech on www.technomag.co.zw or join us on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/technomagzw also leak a tech story to us for US$30 cash. Email ictarticles[at]technomag.co.zw tweet @TechnoMagZw