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Marina Nikolova

The fear that print editions would disappear should be overcome, and there should be discussions about the public need of reliable information and transparency, about the possibility of a dialogue. The 20^th century model which was built on the existence of gatekeepers, who follow the news and control the information flow collapsed and something new appeared in its place, something that is still evolving," said the lecturer Betty Tsakarestou during the congress "The crisis of the press and the difficult transition to the digital era," organized by Panteion University in Athens. The hierarchical and closed systems are changing and the media response is their short-sightedness to assess and their refusal to accept the new reality, looking at the same time to the past with nostalgia. The transition is to another model that is based on "trust" rather than "control" as well as on open platforms and constantly giving public statements rather than "protectionism" and opacity of closed relations of interdependence.

But modern laws are needed, noted the President of the union of local daily newspapers Yannis Laskarakis. The anonymous writers online and the populism mislead people, and the authors need not to sign the materials they publish on the web, added Laskarakis.

In this respect, Betty Tsakarestou noted that the current trend in the American websites is that more and more bloggers, when writing their comments, to say in advance for whom they work, where they worked before, what are their sources and how they are connected with the organisations that are involved in their comments so that their readers to know and not to wander who wrote the comment and what interest lies behind a given comment. The question of whether there is an objectivity of the news or the comment, or if everything is sincere and expressed, finds its answer in that the author has to present to the readers all his sources of information used and his background, so that it is clear how he has linked the various information and made a given conclusion or a statement. "The context is more important than the content of the information," said Betty Tsakarestou.

The question for the survival of the press remains and also whether it is possible to move to a new era. According to the university teacher, the transition to the new era needs to constantly experiment and there is no need of hesitation to do something because of fear of failure, and the necessary condition is that there is openness and publicity, and trust in people. We already live in such conditions in the 21^st century that all we do will be in a trial period, because we live in an environment with plenty of ideas, resources, cooperation, sharing, said Tsakarestou. Basically, this transition is made from a culture of specific state participation to a culture in a free market.

Yannis Laskarakis talked about the newspapers in the country and the need to become competitive, as the state advertising has significantly diminished, and their share is very limited as part of the private advertisers. So, they have to adapt to the new conditions. "We believe in a local press that will be competitive and will be guided by the principles of quality and sustainability, i.e. it will rely on its readers. The publishers should realize that the era of cash cows is gone. They should learn to swim in "the deep waters" of the free market, the quality products and competition. Otherwise, they will remain in the "shallow" and "muddy waters" of mediocrity, said Laskarakis adding that the government should also help by establishing laws that would create an environment of transparency.

"All studies show that local newspapers sell three times more copies in the countryside than any other newspapers that come from Athens. Unlike Athenian newspapers the circulation of which is falling because of the increase and the popularity of online media and blogs, the local press is keeping its readers. The problems of the local press are due to the fact that it has no sufficient share in the advertising cake, which has also shrunk because of the crisis. Furthermore, the law that provides the state advertising to be allocated in percentage among the local media is not applied, and the advertising is allocated mainly to the publications that are circulated throughout the country," said Laskarakis. He noted that local newspapers have to gain their place and that they could push good ideas and inform their readers in a responsible manner. The president of the union of daily local newspapers gave as an example several editions in the area of ​​Evros, which managed through their publications to change the existing xenophobic inclinations in the area and helped create a favourable atmosphere for the relations with the neighbours and for the coexistence of the people from the Thrace area with people of different faiths and backgrounds.

Laskarakis noted that the problem of local newspapers development is the lack of decentralisation in the country for many years. According to him, through the Kalikratis plan for reforming the administrative system of local government, it is expected to completely change the way of management and to have local elections for regional governors, so that the local press would have to play its responsible role. Therefore, Laskarakis said that it is necessary the people working in the newspapers to have continuous training so as to fulfill their obligations to make a strong local press. There have been many newspapers, which were not sufficiently popular among the readers, but they had state advertising and relations with the local governments, and this is how they were supported.

The moderator of the discussion Persa Zeri also said that the two major problems that led to this serious crisis in the media are the lack of entrepreneurial spirit and the model of state funding through advertisements of state enterprises.

"The media missed the most important news - that of the bankruptcy of Greece," said Mania Xenou from Reliant Communications in the beginning of her speech. Where is the problem and is there a serious political debate in Greece are the questions that seek answers according to Xenou, who added that the media are scaring us about the wrong things and are underestimating the important information. She noted that now Greece has the largest number of media per capita across the EU as it has 250 televisions, 500 newspapers, 650 magazines and 100 radio stations. Another typical feature for Greece is that the media have shareholders from other competitor media or companies. According Mania Xenou, although many well-known journalists have turned entirely to the Internet and have made their publications there, the way they present the information and the aesthetics are not different and they are unable to cope with the big news, while modern and clear thinking is necessary currently.

Finally, Xenia Kourtoglou from Focus Bari, announced some statistics and said that the newspapers need to comply with the requirements of their readers, which is not homogeneous. So, in her opinion, print media have their readers but their digital versions should adapt to new formats to be opened by iPad, Android and iPhone.

According to the data presented by Xenia, the number of newspapers readers is rising and they are currently 57% among the people aged 13 to 70 years, most of whom are men over 45 years old, who read at least one article in one edition daily. If we go back to 1990 we would notice that reading daily newspapers then has been a favourite habit of readers who have had journalists whose articles and comments they followed regularly. Five years later, private television stations began to broadcast and then the percentage of readers fell to 24% and the newspapers began to make offers to preserve them, and many new editions appeared too. The first free press editions appeared in 2000. Currently, the two free press editions in Attica - Metro and City Press, are being read more than the daily newspapers, noticed Kourtoglou.

The Sunday editions managed to keep their readers and have 40% of readers by offering rich packages of additional magazines and collectible movies or music CDs. The economic daily newspapers have a steady readership, which consists mostly of well-educated men aged over 35 years. The economic newspapers are going well as well as their online versions. An example of this is Naftemporiki, which has doubled its readers on the network for two years since it invested in the website and has a stable level of sales of its print edition, said Xenia Kourtoglou.

"We should have different solutions for the different types of readers," noted Kourtoglou, who added that the editions should comply with the demand, and the publishers should rely on their knowledge and experience to reproduce reliable information, on the brand name and the fact that they have ready structures. We need to have a responsible and reliable communication node to decrypt and arrange the chaotic information, said the representative of Focus Bari.