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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2014
OUT OF PRINT takes a long, hard look at the British newspaper industry - its past, present and future. The author, a former journalist with many years of experience - for example, at the London SUNDAY TIMES - looks at the way in which newspapers acquired a position of considerable primacy in British cultures from the mid-eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries, a position that is now under threat through digitization. Brock is well aware of how the internet has changed the ways in which readers consume news - looking for outlets other than that of the newspapers and exercising freedom of choice, as well as making the news themselves through blogs. On the other hand, he believes that there is a future for the printed newspaper - perhaps the circulation figures will not be as substantial as they were in the past, but Brock understands how many readers prefer paper to the screen, even if they own an IPad or a smartphone. Ultimately OUT OF PRINT calls for the newspaper industry to become more flexible, to reject its antediluvian practices of the past, both in terms of news-gathering and distribution, and adapt itself to changing practices. A combination of the tried and tested, the reliable and the trustworthy, allied to new, innovative methods of delivering the news, both in print and online, seems like the formula for future success. Perhaps the book is a little too parochial in focus (there is too much on the Leverson inquiry, and not enough on developments within the American newspaper industry), but it is nonetheless well written and highly accessible.
