The Rise of Internet News Has Crippled the Print Media: Paper Example

Introduction

The internet is disabling the print media and to some extent other sources of mass media output. Newspapers have become sluggish over the past several decades, and they have become accustomed to raking inadequate competition regarding revenues. Between 1990 and 2002, during the onset of the web, newspapers sales declined by 20% and the pace have been constant ever since (Crabtree). Newspapers corporations have now come to a sad reality that they might encounter a financial crisis if they do not keep up with the dynamic technological competitors. The impact is so drastic that in less than 20 years no newspaper professional would have argued that the print media would become obsolete one day. The advent of the internet, smartphone and other mobile devices and their popularity that is growing every day has revolutionized how people consume news and how companies do business.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The decline of the print media has led to questions about the integrity, info reliability and the problems of authenticating truths in the online world (Kovacic, Erjavec, and Stular). There has been a mixed reaction among researchers where some state that the online news media is more credible than traditional media while others argue that the online press is less reliable. However, the credibility of the online media was connected with dependence on the net rather than how much the individual used the medium and on the other hand consumers perceive online media with skepticism as compared to print media.For newspapers, there has been a steady decline in paid circulation while digital media has had an increased audience and pulling away advertisement revenue from the papers. Over a period of ten years, the newspapers revenue has fallen by 60 percent; this drop has been a significant hit to the newspapers since every dollar advertisement revenue loss is close to a dollar of operating profit (Purdy, Wong, and Harris).

Due to this decline, most newspapers opted to enter the digital media with a naive idea of being the primary information providers to cut costs for newsprint, labor, and delivery. Several publications that craved to be enlisted in the digital revolution were such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other major local news organizations (Kennedy). An effort to develop a new source of digital revenue has primarily been curtailed with the advent of craigslist new model for classified ads that took away 40 percent of the advertisement revenue. The web has shifted the equilibrium of power from publisher to advertisers who can influence their consumers more proficiently than previously. Besides very few online newspapers consumers are willing to pay for subscriptions to newspapers when they can get news for free online. Therefore it is improbable that online publications changing fee to access their online content will survive in the online market.

The explosion of several free online news sources has been the primary cause of their failure to success in the new digital media. The virtually unlimited space on the internet gives the audience an opportunity to access news about any topic of their choice. For instance, Washington Post had an increase 42 percent increase in traffic when it began charging viewers to view online content, however the moment they imposed a subscription fee, their online subscribers refused to continue their subscription. Thus their online subscribers cannot match up their paper subscribers (Everett). Secondly, these newspapers are losing money for the print subscription when the readers realize that they can get the same information for free on the internet. Readers are paying hundreds of dollars a month for cell service and broadband thus they feel that adding more expenses for print subscriptions is an extra expense since back then the only choice was to pay for the print publication. Lastly, the print corporations entered the digital media misinformed and naively hoping to establish a monopoly that they were used to in the traditional medium. This lack of preparedness exposed them to inevitable failure that has deemed it too difficult to recoup from the errors.

To recoup from the loss, some critic argues that the companies can adjust to lower profits despite the fact that the decline in advertising and print circulation are virtually guaranteed to continue (Starr). Some newspapers have gone ahead and dropped the least profitable of their daily editions usually Saturday, Wednesdays and Mondays with the hope that there will be adequate readers and thus advertisement will remain local. This will also mean that these papers will change how they do their news coverage by focusing less on breaking news, in which the internet is in a much better position to deliver and more on contextual and analytical stories (Grabowicz). Older technology has a more opportunity to develop the most credibility among eyes of consumers. Therefore popular newspapers can establish a presence in the online market that will help them maintain their traditional subscribers in the new digital media. Most people have difficulties trusting online sources because anyone can publish online however if the information presented to them belong to sources that they deem credible they can devote their loyalty to that website. Therefore the print media that have already established an online presence can back on their loyal consumers to help recapture their market share (Lee and Chyi).

Conclusion

Newspapers feared technology in the past, they are now recognizing that technology is becoming the way of the future, some are closing down while others have made an effort to reap many of it consequential benefits. As the online media continues to challenge the print media with measurable competition, it is unlikely that the print industry will return where it was decades ago. Without a local newsprint or even a sunken one, most folks in the world will acquire a lot less about what is going on in the world. There is no source of the medium even the new media is willing and can pay for general-interest reporting that newspapers are abandoning, most online journalist and websites are reporting based on their private interest or from individualized perspectives of their sponsors or main advertisers due to the upsurge of online media competition. Most bloggers operate from their armchair rather than the frontline; print corporation has cut mostly on their reporter to reduce on expenses, therefore at this pace, the internet will ultimately kill the print media and establish online digital media as the only credible source of information where almost every info presented is secondary.

Work Cited

Crabtree, Vexen. The Worst of the Modern Mass Media. 2009. 8 March 2018 <http://www.humantruth.info/mass_media.html>.

Everett, Elizabeth. "Transformation of Newspapers in the Technology Era." Journalism and Media Arts & Entertainment (2011): 102-110.

Grabowicz, Paul. Tutorial: The Transition To Digital Journalism. 11 April 2016. 8 March 2018 <https://multimedia.journalism.berkeley.edu/tutorials/digital-transform/>.

Kennedy, Dan. Print Is Dying; Digital Is No Savior: The Long, Ugly Decline Of The Newspaper Business Continues Apace. 26 January 2016. 8 March 2018 <https://news.wgbh.org/2016/01/26/local-news/print-dying-digital-no-savior-long-ugly-decline-newspaper-business-continues>.

Kovacic, Melita, Karmen Erjavec and Katarina Stular. "Credibility of Traditional vs. Online." (2010): 113-130.

Lee, Angela and Hsiang Iris Chyi. "The Rise of Online News Aggregators: Consumption and Competition." International Journal on Media Management (2015): 3-24.

Purdy, Scott, Phil Wong and Paul Harris. "The rise of the Internet and the decline of print ." Stop Th Presses (2017): 5-10.

Starr, Paul. Goodbye to the Age of Newspapers (Hello to a New Era of Corruption). 4 March 2009. 8 March 2018 <https://newrepublic.com/article/64252/goodbye-the-age-newspapers-hello-new-era-corruption>.