It's the end as we know it.

The demise of the newspaper industry is inevitable. We live in a culture where we want everything now - and online news allows just that. The immediacy online journalism allows is quite fitting in our fast paced lives and the newspaper industry can’t quite compete. Why pay for information in print form when you could get the same content online free of charge? The recession has taken a serious toll in our daily lives, and even the biggest names in the US newspaper industry are feeling the recession’s bite.

We live in a fast-paced society where we’ve gotten the notion that we need information and need it NOW. Our thirst for the here and now has consumed us, and with technologies such as the internet and mobile devices that enable web browsing why would we want it any other way? The Newspaper Association of America conducted a study and found that Newspaper web sites attracted more than 74 million monthly unique visitors on average in the third quarter of 2009, more than one-third (38 percent) of all Internet users. As more and more newspapers started making their content available on the internet free of charge consumers have taken advantage of the spread and there seems to be no turning back.

Newspapers get their income from two sources: readers and advertisers. With more and more newspapers publishing their print online, there has been a major downfall of readers with paid subscriptions. A BBC News article talks about the demise of the US newspaper in general along with examples of well known names, such as the New York Times, and their hardships – struggling to service debts of some $400 million and having to mortgage it’s gleaming new headquarters (built in 2007) to increase their cash flow. Free content online has put a dent in the income of printed news, but the fact of the matter is, nothing is going to improve until the economy recovers.

Technologies such as iPods and cellular phones now allow consumers to have access to, what seems to be, an endless pool of information. We live in a world where we want information at rapid speed –and for cheap. Until newspapers can configure a way to compete with our hunger for information and the holes in our pockets while making revenue, the demise of the newspaper will only continue.

The End

Since the emergence of television and radio, but especially since the Internet first gained popular appeal, newspaper subscriptions and readership have been on the decline. It is not a lack of interest in the news that is responsible for this trend, but instead it is the cost of a newspaper compared with finding news online. If you can find the same information online for free as you can in a newspaper for a cost, it is no wonder that the Internet is winning this battle.

            Piled on top of a decline in readership are a corresponding drop in advertising revenue, the fact that the most profitable section of a newspaper—the classifieds—is now a service provided cheaper more conveniently by websites, and the unfortunate reality that internet advertising does not provide the same amount of revenue as print advertising. So, even if customers of major newspapers stop reading the print edition of the paper and start reading the online edition, the newspaper company still loses money. From every angle this has become a no-win situation. In October of last year, almost exactly one year ago, The New York Times published an article examining the state of some of the major newspapers in the United States. The outlook was predictably grim. Of the major newspapers, only USA Today and The Wall Street Journal had held their ground compared to the previous year. The two papers are first and second, respectively, with regard to weekly circulation, and maintained their numbers pretty well. Others were not so fortunate, with an average circulation decline of 4.6 percent during the week, with the most affected newspaper being The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which had a decline of 13.6 percent.

            These numbers all lead to the same place, eventually a newspaper cannot afford to publish and it folds under the pressure of too many employees and too little revenue. Newspapers across the country are disappearing, among them The Rocky Mountain News and The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Others are turning to online publication, which eliminates the costs of printing and delivery. Some of the largest cities in the country have only a single newspaper. In San Francisco, The San Francisco Chronicle is the only major newspaper, and even without local competition it is rumored to be having difficulty surviving in the Internet age. Were it to go under, it would make San Francisco the first major US city without a newspaper. CNN details these stories and numerous others here.

            What this means is a new type of news. Print news is not going away, it is too convenient to ever truly disappear. Instead it is shifting, it is transitioning from paper and ink to screen and text. The major news sources in the US: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, will all survive and even eventually thrive on the internet, once the number of daily papers in the US is reduced to near-zero and their competition has been eliminated. But in the meantime, a more fluid form of news and journalism is developing. Website news makes money off of visitors, the more people viewing a site on a consistent basis, the more that site can charge for advertising. Therefore, attractive news becomes more valuable than important news. Hollywood and sensationalism draw readers better than Congress and Washington. The anonymity of the Internet makes credibility impossible, so it is ignored. Accuracy is not expected, instead of facts we expect rumors and speculation, but we have been conditioned for so long to expect that our news sources are feeding us the truth that in an Internet age where the story can’t always be accurate we still suspend our disbelief simply because what we are reading is called “news.” Blogs offer only instant gratification, they can offer analysis, and interpretation, but there is no inherent credibility in them. Anyone can start a blog and anyone can become famous writing a blog; that does not mean they have any more knowledge, talent, or credibility than anyone else in this world. I don’t get my news from the guy standing next to me at the bus stop, why would I get my news from a blog?

The Fall of Newspaper

As times change, one technology transcends another and a society as a whole must adapt with it. Right now, the Internet is the source of the most recent trend of declining readership and eventual failing of newspapers all over the country. The newspapers simply can’t compete with the on-time delivery and “I need it now” fast food mentality of the modern age. Some of the most well-known newspapers like the New York Times are falling victim to this trend because their advertisers are jumping ship from the print to the online world. Revenue generated from advertiser fees online isn’t enough to make up for the windfall losses felt by the print newspapers. High production costs of running a national newspaper the size of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times or Chicago Tribune are significantly greater than can be achieved by selling advertising space online. In a New York Times article, evidence shows that readership has declined in the last year, in some cases significantly, while online viewership has shown a strong increase.

Some believe the next stage of adaptation is to begin a pay-per-view system where the online edition of a particular newspaper charges a flat rate for the viewing of each story or a monthly subscription for access to the site as a whole. While some believe that this will help to overcome the loss in advertising revenue, public opinion says the argument will fall just like the very newspapers they’re trying to save. Put simply: no one’s going to pay money for essentially the same information they can get elsewhere for free. The only real chance may be a special access section that provides insider or expert opinion that can’t be had anywhere else. For example, anyone can pull up espn.com and read all the articles on daily sporting activities, scores, standings, etc.; but for a fee a reader can access an insider only section with added insight on specific teams, sports and athletes.

The main issue with all of this, really, is the concept of reliability and authenticity. At the end of the day, the quality of the information itself, not the funding or ability to achieve the highest readership or viewer numbers, are at the heart of the debate. The Internet is a platform for common people to practice their prose, inform others of daily and cultural happenings and express disgust toward their latest hated movie or show love for their newest favorite CD. While giving an opinion on everything from the wars in the Middle East to the annoying neighbor across the street with the spying eye can be fun, if not therapeutic, it raises serious questions over the quality of the information. Journalists are educated on how to prepare stories, how to research sources and find, to the best of their knowledge, the most accurate information possible. They are looked upon as experts because of it. So when Joe Headline tries to break the latest news on the big trade made by the local sports team or the developing issue of tax levies on the community’s residential property values, one has to take a step back and determine if the information is reliable.

Ultimately, the end of the print version of news isn’t so much a loss of ideals as it is a loss of vehicle. As long as the industry can hold serve until the evolution is complete, news will still be fit to print, no matter the manner in which it’s delivered to its audience. Much in the way that compact discs are giving way to MP3s, news and books will all be digitized and virtually altered, leaving only the forlorn loss of a medium that will have lost its cold-in-hand physical feel in favor for the mobile, ultra-portable, if not colder, virtual world.

Online news replacing print

As newspaper sales decrease drastically, newspaper web site audiences are increasing rapidly. Tim Arango of the New York Times writes, “At 395 daily newspapers, weekday circulation declined 7.1% for the sixth months that ended March 31, compared with the previous year”. (New York Times) Many of these declines are a direct result of the business effort to reduce unprofitable distribution adopted by the papers. Several papers have also raised their rates and eliminated discounts in an attempt to maintain their key, long-term customers.

Internet news has had a great impact on the fall of the traditional newspaper format. In the fast pace society which we live in, individuals are constantly searching for expedited means of obtaining information. The internet allows for the instant stream of information throughout the world. Previous generations learned about current events through a morning delivery to their doorstep. Today, that delivery can come in form of a text message, email, or even a tweet directly to them at any time throughout the day. According to the Newspaper Association of America, “Newspaper Web sites attracted more than 74 million monthly unique visitors on average in the third quarter of 2009, more than one-third (38 percent) of all Internet users.” (Newspaper Association of America) Editors formerly scrambled to obtain all the facts before a daily printing and shipped the information out as a tangible. Today, however, online newspaper articles can be constantly updated, changed, and commented on.

Often times, some accuracy and credibility are compromised when sources of news compete to be the first to report. For example, many news outlets declared that Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election in error. Also, during the September 11th attacks there was much speculation throughout the media as to who was responsible and the nature of events before a confirmation was obtained.

Newspapers have always represented a reliable and accurate source of obtaining the news. As newspapers decline in popularity, much of the classical elements of coverage are lost. In certain instances, online news sources blur the lines between information and entertainment in order to gain hits. As a result of the decline in newspaper sales, individuals in our society appear to become less informed and active as citizens.

The Demise of the Newspaper: Fall 2009

This topic is so important to your Media Literacy. You should consider what we are losing in the fall of newspapers. AND you should consider what we are gaining. According to the assignment you will need to take a position on this topic after you analyze it. Then, don't forget to provide evidence from other websites (one news and one other source) that supports your reasoning. Be sure to review the assignment sheet on our D2L page.