‘A few years ago I thought it was fairly dead in the water’: newspaper printing, new media and job insecurity in Australia

The work of printers has been central to newspaper production for hundreds of years. In recent times, however, this work has been challenged by the emergence of new technologies and by the struggles of newspaper publishers to remain financially viable. Based on interviews with 20 newspaper printers in Australia, and grounded in a theoretical approach that emphasises job insecurity and precarity within the context of a socially embedded analysis of technological innovation, this paper asks (1) what do printers see as the future of their industry and (2) would they recommend newspaper printing as a career path to others. The printers we interviewed understand themselves to be in a precarious position. While they find many aspects of their craft rewarding, and would recommend newspaper printing as a career, they also recognise that changes in the contexts of newspapers pose a threat to the future of newspaper printing. At the same time, perceptions of the dimensions and severity of this threat are contested among the printers themselves, and need to be located within an understanding of longer term changes within the newspaper industry.