Newspapers: Not Looking Very Dead Yet
from the might-just-go-for-walk dept
For all the talk about the death of newspapers, it's been pointed out more than a few times that most newspapers remain wildly profitable. It's more a fear of the future and jittery investors that are causing the latest newspaper industry shakeup. Adam Thierer has some more support for this in a couple of recent studies that suggest the old paper newspaper is anything but dead. One highlights the rapid growth of free dailies over the last few years in major metropolitan areas, while the other points out that people still look to their newspapers for local information. Both of these suggest ways that local newspapers can respond to the "threat" of the internet, if they choose to follow through.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Last I checked
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PDA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The newspaper conundrum...
On the one hand, the news I read at lunch (on the internet) or the news I hear over my shoulder while I’m working in the evening is right now news. The newspaper’s info is, at very best, hours old, often a day old. So, from this perspective, newspapers are at a disadvantage.
On the other hand, newspapers offer things that cannot (currently) be derived from online/on-air news and information. It’s far easier to ignore adverts in a newspaper than on CNN’s front page. In addition, newspapers don’t have goofy, topical Flash-based ads that blink and “challenge you to whack the president with a mallet to win a free…” Human beings still derive a certain sense of pleasure from holding paper words in their hands, like books and newspapers, and little puzzle booklets. A great many millions of people appreciate the feel, look, and smell of holding a fresh newspaper in their paws every day or so.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Advertisers
More importantly, advertisers still look for local market exposure. I couldn't count the number of ads in my paper for car dealerships, furniture outlets and local franchises.
It's also true that you buy the paper you automatically bring all of those ads into your home, regardless of whether you read that section of the paper or not. It's still worthwhile for advertisers to buy a full page ad in the hopes that it will catch your eye.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's a generational thing.
I stated that a large portion of Generation X already prefers to read news on a laptop (now tablet) computer where we can change font sizes and customize what articles we get.
Paper newspapers will continue to be bought by Generation X and their parents/grandparents until these three generations have passed away.
I don't think that today's teenagers, Generation Pepsi?, will prefer paper newspapers over electronic ones. I don't they will miss the feel of paper and smugy ink. When Generation Pepsi is 80 years old, I think there will be few paper newspapers around. The companies behind today's paper newspapers will all have gone electronic. I think even local papers will be electronic because it is much cheaper and easier to run an electonic newspaper than a paper one.
Finally, I don't think this is a bad thing. I think it's the content, not the medium, that makes a good newsource.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]