What Challenges Face the Newspaper Industry with the Emergence of the Internet - Research Paper Example

?What challenges face the newspaper industry with the emergence of the internet and can they survive and adapt to still be viable? Introduction Newspaper industry is one of the oldest means of information for the society. At different points in the history, newspaper industry had to deal with new and emerging challenges as a result of technological advancement. The most potential challenge that the newspaper industry is dealing with in the present age and would continue to deal with for a long time in the future is the emergence of the Internet. The features and qualities of the Internet outdo the newspapers in various ways. This has imparted the need for the newspaper industry to engage in measures for sustenance in these challenging times. The different ways in which people can receive news People use a variety of ways to receive news in the present age. A report published by the Pew Research Center suggests that for the most part, differences in the consumption of local news that emerged from the collected data shows the different demographic compositions of a variety of types of community in the US (Miller). Means of receiving information include but are not limited to newspapers, television, radio, and the Internet. Each of these mediums has a range of alternative services running simultaneously to keep the audiences updated. For example, there are different companies publishing newspapers on daily basis in different languages to cater for the multilingual needs of the increasingly multicultural society. Likewise, there are different television channels that collect news on daily basis, make documentaries, and offer news at specific times throughout the day. Radio has different channels like television. The Internet is the most vibrant source of information. According to a study based on the ways of consumption of news by Americans carried out by Pew Internet, about 75 per cent of the people that discover news online have it forwarded to them either through the posts on the social networking websites or the e-mail and almost 52 per cent of this population uses the very means to forward the received information to others (Schroeder). People also receive news is through gossip with one another. This gossip may be face to face, over the telephone, or over an online service like Skype or chat. Commencement of the decline in newspaper readership The decline in the readership of newspapers started with the introduction of radio and television in the society in general and with the advent of the Internet in particular. Many newspaper making companies have closed over the passage of time. “The Rocky Mountain News closes, the Miami Herald sheds 200 jobs, the Globe & Mail offers severance packages, the Washington Post downsizes its business section, and on it goes” (Evans). Newspapers are the oldest source of information among all contemporary sources of information. Newspapers are almost as old as the manufacturing of paper is. For a long time in the history, people had no source of information but newspapers. Therefore, readership of the newspapers was tremendous. This trend changed with the creation of radio. Among the main functions served by radio was delivering news. Service of the radio was almost similar to that of the television except for the fact that audiences could not see anything in radio while television provided them with the facility of observing moving image. As radios and televisions became common, readership of the newspapers started to decline. However, an even stronger threat to the readership of the newspapers surfaced in the form of the Internet. Over the passage of time, use of the Internet has become so tremendous and commonplace that people hardly find time for radio and television services, and the Internet has become the most fundamental source of information in the contemporary age. Steps taken by the newspapers to ensure their future One of the steps that newspapers are taking in the present age to ensure their future is providing the readers with valid and factual information. Newspaper making companies are aware of the threats posed to them in the present age of technology. At the same time, they are aware of the fact that readers look for and value sources of information that provide them with unbiased and true information. The modern sources of information like television and the Internet are popular for their manipulation of the audiences and biased information systems. In addition to that, newspapers have this advantage that companies have the time of at least a whole day to scan through and edit the information before the next day’s newspaper is published. Keeping these factors in mind, newspaper making companies are striving hard to outweigh other sources of information in terms of the authenticity, validity, and reliability of information. Another strategy that is increasingly being used by newspaper making companies to preserve their future is classified ads. Although classified ads are increasingly becoming popular over the Internet, yet a considerable population of audiences, particularly the elderly feels more comfortable using newspapers for such services. Newspapers are likely to continue being a more popular means of advertisement in the future also because young generation is also more accustomed to using newspapers for looking and posting advertisements like the old generation than using the Internet for similar purposes. “To some extent, [young readers] are no different really—only more so-- from most newspaper readers over the decades who considered themselves defined in certain fundamental ways by the newspaper—or newspapers—they bought and read. I don’t think this sort of relationship, this sort of self-definition, will ever be the case” (Gawenda). with news websites or blog sites” Understanding this, newspaper making companies are providing advertisements with more and more space in the paper. As a result of this, newspapers have become heavier and larger because of the added space and pages to accommodate the ads. Newspapers are also a better means of advertisement in comparison to the modern mediums like television and the Internet because the information published over a piece of paper becomes the property of the reader forever and can be preserved. On the other hand, ads published over the Internet or those broadcast on the television cannot be preserved unless the audiences make effort to record them, which is not a common trend. In addition to the usual classified ads, newspaper making companies also organize events and competitions whose dates and venues are announced through the newspapers. Readers look up to such opportunities where they can display their talent and earn rewards for the same. Such competitions include but are not limited to drawing contests and speech contests. Use of the internet by the newspaper industry for its advantage The newspaper industry has started to use the Internet for its own advantage. Newspaper making companies have benefited from the mobile devices and tablets because these devices have helped increase the attractiveness of the paid digital subscriptions. As a result, many newspapers have started to offer editions that are “all access”, thus bundling the subscriptions both digital and print. Executives of the newspaper making companies are of the view that if they can make the customers pay for the digital subscriptions, the threat of inevitable and persistent decline of the print would be reduced because of the fatter margins brought in by the digital editions (“The newspaper industry”). Audiences are drawn toward the news industry by new technologies. For example, social media’s interactivity is transforming the process of participation of the consumers in the news (Gleason, 2010). For example, followers can have their news personalized using Twitter and can respond to the sources of news that they follow with their concerns, ideas, or questions (Farhi, 2009). Will the newspaper industry still need to keep evolving in the future to keep up with the internet? Since the advent of the Internet, newspaper making companies have realized the importance of keeping up with the new competitors of technology in order to deter from encountering a financial crisis. Therefore, newspaper industry has already started to embrace the technology in order to meet the expectations of the audiences (Everett 102). “In just the last month, Gillin’s site reported on the demise of the Bay Area News Group, which consolidated 11 newspapers into two surviving publications, costing about 120 people their jobs. These are just a few casualties among many as the print industry learns to adapt in the digital age” (Gillin). This certainly imparts the need to grow business online. Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg attributes his success to technology as he says, “people are online because it is a more efficient way of doing things” (Cassidy). Newspapers have to take pressure to deliver news more quickly, to achieve which they need to evolve in the future to keep up with the internet. Comparison and contrast between the newspaper and the online news The Internet is very different from the traditional sources of information like newspapers, television, and radio; first, information over the Internet is updated by every second. Secondly, there are different kinds of sources of information over the Internet that primarily include social media websites, social networking websites, and online television channels. This makes the Internet just as efficient, if not more, in delivering the news as television is. Since there is a growing trend of using social networking websites among people of all ages these days, so social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter are most commonly used to share and receive information. Most people get brief news over the social networking websites and then explore the radio or television channels to hear the details of the news. A more detailed version appears in the newspapers next day. Although newspapers are the most detailed sources of news as compared to other sources of news, yet one disadvantage of newspapers that provides other sources of information with an edge over the newspapers is that newspapers take a whole day to compile the information and send it to the readers while other sources of information like television, radio, and the Internet are updated 24/7, thus keeping the audiences constantly updated on the latest news. Conclusion Emergence of the Internet has increased the challenges for the newspaper industry. Readers have undergone a radical change in their preferences as more and more of them have started to use the Internet as their primary source of information. This imparts the need for the newspaper industry to take objective measures to evolve with the Internet, develop itself online, as well as provide the print readers with unique benefits. If the newspaper industry does not take important steps now, its future may not be very bright. Works Cited: Cassidy, “How Hanging Out on the Internet Became Big Business”. The New Yorker. Vol. 82. No. 13. 15 May 2006. Web. 23 April 2013. Evans, Mark. “Do newspapers have a future?” Mark Evans Tech. 14 Mar. 2009. Web. 23 April 2013. . Everett, C. Elizabeth. “Transformation of Newspapers in the Technology Era.” The Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications. Vol. 2. No. 2. 2011. Web. 23 April 2013. . Farhi, Paul. “The Twitter Explosion”. American Journalism Review. Vol. 31. No. 3, pp. 26- 31. 2009. Web. 23 April 2013. Gawenda, Michael. “Do newspapers have a future? And how long is that future?” The University of Melbourne. N.d. Web. 23 April 2013. . Gillin, Paul. “Our 15 Minutes.” Newspaper Death Watch. 5 March 2007. Web. 23 April 2013. . Gleason, Stephanie. “Harnessing Social Media”. American Journalism Review. Vol. 32. No. 1. pp. 6-7. 2010. Web. 23 April 2013. Miller, Carolyn. “How people get local news and information in different communities.” Pew Internet. 26 Sep. 2012. Web. 23 April 2013. . Schroeder, Stan. “Social Networks Play a Major Part in How We Get News [STATS].” Mashable. 28 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 April 2013. . “The newspaper industry.” The Economist. 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 23 April 2013. . Read More