So, it’s come to this, hey? I don’t know if this will immediately be made redundant to you in your mind as you read this magazine, simultaneously supporting student media but the nationwide trends aren’t like you my friend. That’s right, you’re different. You’re not like other students. Across the country we’ve seen a steady decline in support, both financial and moral, for media made by and for students. For years, Nexus has been proudly proclaiming that we’re like you, different (while simultaneously holding a middle finger up to other student bodies across the country). But, times are changing and we fear we are going to be forced to as well. Or else. It’s a matter of adapt or vanish. So let’s talk about this current, and future, climate, shall we?
Let’s set the scene with print media. Out of the eight universities, there are seven student media providers. Pretty simple stuff so far. They are: Craccum (University of Auckland), Debate (AUT), Nexus (yeah the lads), Massive (Massey)(dumb name), Salient (Wellington), Canta (Canterbury), and Critic Te Ārohi (Otago). Each university has their student body’s voice given a mouth by each of these sources of media. It’s an important part of vocalising the thoughts of the student body. But, among all of these student bodies, the majority have now neglected a weekly publication of a magazine. Some have even resorted to a monthly edition. When talking to a mate from Canterbury about why this may be, he simply said, without pause, hesitation, or stutter, “students don’t want to read anything else when they’re being forced to read bloody textbooks all day”. Dramatic? Yup. True? Quite possibly. But, this is a quote that I believe reflects a deeper trend. With media becoming more visual, young people are tending to want to read less and less. It’s found that the average adult was reading for less than 10 minutes a day, a statistic that is believed to be brought down by Generation Z’s TikTok, Instagram fueled entertainment.
This is a problem being reflected in even younger generations today in Aotearoa. Only 60% of 15 year olds can read at the most basic level the national curriculum requires, another negative statistic that has been suggested to be partially caused by a growing lack of interest in good ol’ words on a page. So, with increasingly younger generations not only disliking reading but lacking the competency to read at a basic standard, how well does the future of print media bode? Not very well at all and you don’t need to be some stats wizard or oracle to see that. What’s trendy is not what Nexus currently bases its existence on: print. While we produce digital content, our primary focus being on a weekly publication seems to have as secure a future as that Temu app. Please stop sending me your links for free money. Tangent, sorry. My point is, as you hold this magazine in your hands, you’re very much going against the flow. You’re a salmon. While Nexus loves our salmon, and while it feels like we have some of the last salmon left, we’re not hopeful we’ll have an increase in salmon in the next few years. We’re afraid our salmon will become dead fish and just be caught up with the stream. Analogy over.
So what will the face of the media change to? A recent survey found 86% of adults consume their news online. This isn’t anything new to us; we’ve been producing an online version of our magazine for a wee while now. However, the number of people who consume this type of media has declined by around 20% over the past decade. A trend that is only expected to continue with the increase in demand for visual content. These stats, I’m sure, aren’t a surprise. The way that we as a generation consume content is in short, sharp bursts. This fire, that has been ablaze since the dawn of Vine and the adaption of Instagram and Snapchat, has been made into a bonfire by the down-pouring of a jerry can of gas that came in the form of TikTok. TikTok has over 1 billion global users, with 15% of Generation Z saying that they get their news off the platform. It’s defining the way student media, including us here at Nexus, are approaching this issue of a decline in demand for student media, in order to cling to what students now want. We’ve pursued alternative ways of content that resembles this short, and sharp format to better engage with you guys. You may have seen Kae’sharn with mic in hand, supported by our media team, strolling around campus terrorising those who dare walk past him. To let you in behind the scenes, and this is a secret that stays between you and me, this isn’t something that was coincidentally done. It’s a response. A deliberate one at that. We know what this generation responds to and we were aware what we were doing wasn’t the correct format any longer. It might have been but it’s not now. Generation Z was found to have an original attention span of 1.3 seconds; it’s within this 1.3 seconds that we decide where our interest lies. If we don’t like it we move on. So, if you’re still reading this, it’s likely that I was able to catch your interest in 1.3 seconds, something that isn’t as easy to do with text, especially as this is a form our target audience is already stepping away from altogether.
So, that’s our problem. Students don’t want print, students are almost entirely consuming content, including news, online, and we have to adapt. I’m not here to try and convince you to read print. We’ll have to overcome this and we are already looking at ways to do this. While we don’t like following what other unis are doing here at Nexus, the truth is, this could quite possibly be the last year of print. Or at least weekly print. It could potentially be the last year of a weekly magazine altogether. No, don’t cry. I can hear you from here. Man you’re an ugly crier. No need to hoard up all the magazines and sell them off as unique antiques in years to come. Nexus will still be here, we’ll just be different. Compared to when Nexus was first established in 1967, what you hold in your hands now is a far cry from our tabloid based (and overly whiny) past. So, it’s just the next step. Man, this sounds like a break up. I guess what I’m trying to say is, we’re not gonna fight it, so watch this space.
