A BRAVE new media world where personalised newspapers cater to readers' individual preferences was sketched out by a leading media expert yesterday.

Professor Vin Crosbie from Syracuse University in the United States held out the prospect of newspapers landing on doorsteps - or on mobile devices like iPads - with editorial and advertising to suit the reader, in a talk yesterday at the Drama Centre.

Customised newspapers, he said, could be one way for media companies to continue engaging readers in an age of unprecedented information overload.

The industry is seeing 'the greatest change in its history' as news goes from analogue to digital, which has replaced a scarcity of news with a surplus of information, said Prof Crosbie. He is the adjunct professor of visual and interactive communications and the senior consultant on executive education in new media at Syracuse.

With so much information available, people are increasingly zooming in on their specific interests and demanding customised content to suit their individual needs, he said.

In his talk, given as part of the Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Media in Transition Lecture Series, he predicted that mass media, where everyone sees the same stories, will survive, but will no longer be the primary method by which people receive information.

'People will increasingly have the ability to choose news and information according to their individual interests,' he told the audience of more than 400 media professionals, lecturers and students.

'There will be less capability for the press to create a common agenda for the people.'

Tailoring news to each reader could help address the million-dollar question of how to continue making money from print media at a time when online news is flourishing and free, said Prof Crosbie, a veteran newspaper editor and reporter who has worked at News Corp, Reuters and United Press International.

'You have to find a way of matching content to people's interests in the 21st century, because that's a new dimension which would add value, add relevance to our products, make them a better fit for each reader, each listener, each viewer,' he added.

In an opening address before Prof Crosbie's lecture, Dr Tony Tan, chairman of SPH and SPH Foundation, said that what differentiated new media from traditional media was the dynamism of its content and its relationship with the audience, who are not simply passive consumers but who create and interact with it.

'New media effectively brings about the 'democratisation' of the creation, publishing, distribution and consumption of media content,' he said.

The idea of customised news appealed to media observers in the audience such as Ms Felicia Nah, a lecturer in communications and media management at Temasek Polytechnic.

'I agree that traditional print media will have to look very carefully at how it's churning out content. They have to give people what they're looking for. Other traditional media like radio and TV have already adapted.'

But just as there may be no one-paper-fits-all for readers, the problems of media industries cannot be generalised around the world, Prof Crosbie said.

In Singapore and Asia, for instance, the future of print is brighter than in larger, more technologically advanced countries.

'I think print is going to be around in these markets for as long as you use paper for money, we're going to continue using paper for information also,' he said.

Attending Prof Crosbie's address, Straits Times editor Han Fook Kwang, agreed.

'The experience in Asia - where newspaper circulation is increasing - is quite different from the US',' he said.

'I believe that even though there may be huge changes in the way people get their news, what appeals to them and what they are prepared to pay for won't change - news that's relevant to their lives, that helps them understand the society they live in, and that's told in an engaging way they can relate to.'

fiochan@sph.com.sg