Editorial: Reliable news still best read for now generation

Newspapers have a print audience. Photo/Thinkstock

Just when I thought my life didn't need any more popular labels, it turns out there's one more.

Generation Y, the so-called selfish, want-everything-now crowd, are apparently now referred to as Millenniums, which seems appropriate enough for those born in the presence of the year 2000.

I bring this up because editors are constantly being told about markets and what attracts readers. The messages can get somewhat bewildering because newspapers have a print audience, website audience and Facebook audience.

'Traditionalists' might think the digital audience, especially social media, are Gen Y, but in fact they're a pretty mature bunch. Millenniums are now steering the wave that is digital radio sound like iHeart Radio.

I have downloaded the app and am in the middle of contemplating my 'sound' by searching for the artists I want. I can type in GLEN CAMPBELL and create a 'radio station' based around him and similar genres.

Apart from a slightly shameless plug of iHeart, it demonstrates to me that if an audience demands something, it's got to be delivered. I don't entirely endorse that because while music is a product, news is a service, obtained and packaged by trained people.

I weather random criticism, and mixed messages about our coverage and choice of content, but I believe people would be appalled if we swayed to the whims of who was shouting the loudest. That way lies the potential to be nudged by interest groups, or even government.

Sometimes, when faced with the apps that allow you to design radio stations based around Neil Diamond, a news medium that you exert no control over, but serves an audience equally and as best it can, is refreshing. I open a paper, and there it is. Radio music may be evolving, and I enjoy the changes coming to news delivery, but like Neil Diamond, I still want the familiar, reliable sound.