Written by Lucas Govatos and Austin Minner
The internet has affected the
newspaper industry in various ways over the years. It has changed it for good
and for bad, however it has been steadily declining and the internet does play
a serious role in this decline.
Since 1970, the net paid
circulation of daily newspapers has been declining. It’s also important to note
that in 2003 and 2004, newspaper revenue in the industry as a whole took a
gigantic hit of over $35 Billion dollars according to the Newspaper Association
of America. It is important to note that right in 2003 and 2004, Social Media
and the Internet were really starting to take off, such as Facebook, and that these kinds of websites were starting to really generate revenue.
US Newspaper Advertising Revenue
Newspaper
Association of America published data
Many newspapers have died due to
the internet, such as the Baltimore Examiner, Kentucky Post, the King County
Journal and more, according to the Newspaper Death Watch. However, newspapers
such as the Capital Times, Detroit News, and East Valley Tribune have been
performing well with this new aura of online news. Over the past seven years,
there has been close to 166 different newspaper cuts and 35,000 job losses and redundancies.
The daily newspapers have been cut back tremendously and some executives in the
industry have cut their newspapers back to 2-3 days a week and eliminate their
Sunday paper. They save over 30% of their funds but worry that they will lose
loyal customers who will go elsewhere for more valuable information.
Social
Media sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow you to personalize your news
feed and timeline to allow you to pick and choose what kind of news you see.
The participation the consumer is involved with is much more intriguing since
they are able to leave a comment or question based upon what has been written
or posted, this way other users can comment or even the authors of the article,
and this is especially true for articles that the consumer will be interested in.
Some
newspapers have used the online media as a good outlet to keep people to up to
date as well and are using it to their advantage. It enables newspapers to
provide breaking information almost instantly rather than having to wait for
the next paper to be printed. Some are also tackling the financial situation by
having people subscribe to the website as well and the print version together
as a bundle which helps keep them afloat. While many use Ad’s to keep revenue,
if the papers aren’t selling themselves (like many due to the internet), they
still simply can’t keep up. The internet, however, uses data brokers that give
them more flexibility on what information they send your way, essentially
showing ad’s that will generally interest you more than others.
Powerpoint Presentation on the matter: How Has the Internet Affected Newspapers
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