By Zweli Martin Dlamini

Nokwanda Dlamini,the daughter of former King’s Office Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Bheki Dlamini sold her BMW for eight-two thousand Rands(R82,000.00) within an hour via a mere Facebook post on Monday this week.

This means the digital media including social media,is now in full control and the time for the print media to charge the public,Government and companies expensive amounts when selling their products or services is over.

I was following Dlamini’s Facebook post with keen interest,monitoring the impact of the digital media particularly social media and within an hour,Dlamini had to publish another post saying the car has been sold.

In fact the print media is finished and irrelevant now,both as a reliable timely producer of news and advertiser,advertising in the print media when people have migrated to online is like donating money to charity now.

Social media is not only giving the print media a headache when it comes to news dissemination as even international media companies now use those platforms, to highlight their headlines while directing the audience to their websites for more details and credibility of the story but,the print media advertising industry has been buried and finished.

Well,I have seen the systematic resistance by the eSwatini print media particularly the Times, where a story would be highlighted on social media and the newspaper would then say “read more on tomorrow’s publication”, people no longer have time to “read more tomorrow”, they want the full details of the news now.

I never thought I will live to witness the gradual ‘funeral’ of the print media and in all this,I’ve learned that,change is inevitable.

The print media tried everything in its power,to discredit social media but through innovation,the digital media managed to attract the audience and influenced digital migration.

Indeed,the face of journalism including the advertising industry,has been changed by digital media.

That Nokwanda Dlamini was able to sell her car within an hour through a mere Facebook post,was a clear message that,the print media,including its advertising department has been buried.

But in conclusion,it is important to state that,the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution will not only impact the print media but,some professions and jobs will soon be irrelevant.

We used to visit banks to withdraw money and at the time,banks would employ more bank tellers,Automatic Teller Machines(ATMs) subsequently rendered the jobs for tellers irrelevant and banks had to reduce their staff.

Now,we are able to buy airtime,electricity read news and watch Television(TV) while transacting online,it’s a new era and some journalists who resisted to develop themselves through online journalism trainings will soon go home.

I am told some senior editors within the Times and Observer are already applying or pushing to be considered for top political positions in Government and/or jobs in the private sector,the problem is that,these editors are not telling their juniors the truth and that,it’s over!.