People In The Know

The British newspaper The Independent has gone digital-only as its last print edition was published.It is the first daily national newspaper to close in the UK since 1995.The move comes amid a drop in demand, as sales had dropped to 40,000 from a peak circulation of more than 400,000.The paper's owner, Evgeny Lebedev, acknowledged that journalism has changed dramatically since The Independent was launched in 1986, and its final editorial predicted that it would not be the last newspaper to make such a transition.Politically left-wing, the newspaper became known for its campaigns on issues including the Iraq war in 2003, as well as its photographs.So what does this latest development mean for traditional media? How can traditional media adapt to the new changes? PIK spoke with Deng Jianguo, a former reporter with Shanghai Daily, now Associate Professor at Fudan University's School of Journalism, and Dr Margaret Simons, Director of the Journalism centre at Melbourne University.