Newspapers, perhaps more than any other aspect of the print industry, are facing an uncertain future. The last decade has seen a fundamental shift in the medium via which people obtain their news. With web content freely available, there’s a generation growing up that do not want to pay for their news and advertisers are deserting the medium. What does the future hold for the printed newspaper?
Historical Precedents
Newspapers have faced threats from other media before. They survived the advent of radio and television news programmes, largely by expanding their commentary and analysis sections. These days, it is rare for news story to appear first in a newspaper. Dramatic breaking news will be on radio, TV and Twitter - thoughtful analysis will be in the papers the following day.
Internet Rivalry
The threat from the internet cannot be met in the same way. News blogs can provide the analysis that news junkies seek and their comments sections also provide an opportunity to respond. News blogs are also often far more partisan. People like to read the views of people that they agree with and online analysis can become an echo chamber of one’s own opinions.
Decline in Sales and Advertising Revenue
The falling sales of newspapers has had a concomitant fall in advertising revenue that papers can generate. Obviously if a paper is reaching fewer people, advertisers will not be willing to pay as much to advertise in their pages. The Guardian has had a 50% fall in readership of its printed paper over the last decade - by contrast, it is the second most viewed source for news online (beaten only by celebrity gossip pedlars mailonline) - obviously it is going to have to do something to increase revenue if it is to continue publishing a print edition.
Radical Steps
The Guardian has already teamed up with its rivals Trinity Mirror and Northern & Shell to pool scarce advertising sales across their whole readership. It is rumoured that the next step for the troubled newspaper will be to change to tabloid format and outsource its printing to rival firm News UK. Readers of the print edition are currently charged £2 a day for content they can access for free online.
The Future is Smaller
The printed newspaper faces a lot of challenges. Ultimately, it may be simply too expensive to produce the large editions that we have become familiar with. The Independent went online only late last year and its sister paper, the I, has comparatively little content but may represent the future of other papers. Big journalistic stories will be released online and potted accounts of them will be included in the printed editions the following day along with puzzle pages and lifestyle articles.
Other areas of the print industry continue to go from strength to strength. See our article printed items that are better than their digital alternatives from last week.
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