Posted by: actorjoeyfiero | October 22, 2008

Are newspapers DOOMED to die out?

In today’s age of fast progress and in a generation with smart and savvy individuals who want to make sure they accomplish as much in their time by multitasking, newspapers are competing against time and machine communications such as with computers and the internet. Much of the extra time in the general demographics of newspaper article readers is now spent online. What the major threat here is that newspapers have to compete against time spent online versus time spent with a traditional newspaper and what value the consumer places against both. In other words, people need to be attracted more to one or the other to choose which one they will use for their source of information and news events. At first my thoughts were on the fact that computers are the new wave of the future and it might be a trend for people to just go online but then I thought about the workforce and companies that hire employees, then thought about schools and their teachers and students, most of them use computers as part of their daily routine and not because they like to but because they have to, so when certain information is needed in regards to current events they can easily click on a browser and log on to a newspaper website instead of trying to drive around and find a stand or wait for the next volume of the paper to arrive at their doorstep.

Although perception of the internet gives the user a certain degree of openness and the right to free information, the internet evolution and its progress has been built upon by corporations that rely on advertising dollars to keep them “afloat”. From the very start of newspapers along with others have had part of their company structure and growth to thank from advertising revenues. Advertisers can now see that newspapers can have big visitor numbers towards their websites just as in the decades before the internet they had true subscribers. This helps the newspapers survive by transitioning their advertising revenues that were typically made from the newspaper classifieds, marketing and the such to transition into the new media format and keep people reading. People still feel conformable on relying these newspapers for bringing them news because they are established entities that have been around from generation to generation so there is a certain degree in which newspapers can count on in regards to customer loyalty and readership for generations to come. I, personally would rather read the news about an event from The Los Angeles Times then some Joe blows blog in the middle of the internet ocean (like me) :D . Although perception has it that newspapers are bias, intelligent people can count on the fact that reliable newspapers either on the internet or in print will more than likely not have any propaganda attached to their editorials. So part of it is the easy transition from print to digital as far as sales and bringing in revenues and from trust that people still have in newspapers.


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