Slow Death of Print Media

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The Beginning of the Decline

 Print media had been in a decline way before the


introduction of the internet in the 1990s. This
downward trend began with televison’s emergence in
1950s newspaper’s importance as a source of news in
society. Newspapers where slow to evolve as publishers
and editors where confident as television didn’t seem
much of a threat with a limited amount of stations.
This confidence was also due to newspapers being able
to flourish when radio first came in.
 “Fifty-four million buyers of newspapers prove every
day that newspapers are indispensable to the people,” -
Frank Tripp.
 publisher of the Elmira, N.Y., newspapers and general
manager of the Gannett newspaper chain, from a
column in 1948.
 However, newspapers didn’t have the greatest of
profits compared to previous decades. Circulation of
papers was steady for most of the decade with the
highest circulation in the US being 58,881,746 in daily
circulation. There was a decline in 1958 as television
began to cut into print media’s advertising profits.
 The internet rise of the 1990s brought hope with many
print companies believing this would be anouther
avenue to make profits.
 However with the rise of google and social media in
changing how people get there news this was’t the
case. The ability of the search engines to find a
particular writer or blog means that it makes the print
version of the paper useless.
 Debates as to why newspapers have decline is due to
its lack of ability to keep up with the pace of today’s
society. With news constantly breaking throughout
the day, news reported for today’s paper may be useless
by lunchtime. It’s not entirely the fault of print media
as they are limited in how the present the news
visually as well as how quickly.
 the idea of taking the whole print version of the paper
and putting online and expecting results of what print
used to have is “nonsense”. “Eric Beecher”
 He describes the internet society as very niche medium
where everyone has there specific interest groups and
preferences.
 The concept that newspapers had been running with for
years combining a range of different content from sports
to politics. This doesn’t work today with all the different
ways to get information to specific interests as well as
the rise of social media where anyone, anywhere can
report on an event.
 It is also the quick and easy way to get information that
print media cannot compete with no matter what they
change whether it be layout or content.
The Internet
 has everything and is described by Eric Bleecher as the
“first mass medium in history with almost no barriers
to entry and practically unlimited content-carrying
capacity.” There are billions of different websites and
blogs highly specialised in a certain topic or interest.
What makes it difficult for news media to compete
with this medium is that it’s free. Readers don’t have
any incentive to go pay for news that can go get for free
somewhere else. Also with social media networks (etc.
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram) advertisers
can promote their product more directly to consumers
at no or little cost.
 Sandro Olivo an editor for
the Leader Newspapers
social media has made it
difficult for newspapers
for profit when it has been
given for free.
 “So the public expects to
get their news for free
these days, and while a
percentage is happy to pay
for digital subscriptions,
most will gravitate towards
the free stuff.”
 Sites such as Facebook he says is also reasons for lower
revenues across newspaper groups around the globe
which has led to less money for newspapers to spend
on hiring, training and development staff. This is
because advertisers are taking there money to these
social media sites and can get instant information of
their target demographic.
 “It’s much harder to quantify your reach and bang for
the advertising buck.”
 “The other thing about less revenue means less ads in
newspapers, which leads to less pages, and less space
to print all the news you have.”
Example of how Advertising works on Facebook
 Olivo also discusses how due to how easy it is to make
your own social media account there is an explosion of
unfettered social media sites run by untrained
journalists who publish information from the public
without checking the validity of the source. The public
are misinformed and they aren’t held at the same
standards that a newspaper groups are in having
knowledge of media law.
 “It’s a sad state of affairs, not just for journalism, but
for the public in general.”

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