Plenty Of People Still Read Newspapers -- But What Does That Mean?
from the believe-it-or-not dept
Despite reports that have predicted the complete death of the newspaper business, a new study suggests that the pull of the internet as a news gathering source still pales in comparison to the newspapers. The study notes that the percentage of people who rely on a newspaper for their daily news has remained steady for the past two years, following a decline earlier in the decade. Of course, it's difficult to tell what this really means, as there could be an awful lot hidden in the numbers. The study seems to ask what the "primary" means of news gathering is -- not taking into account that the various media are not mutually exclusive. That means shifts may be much more hidden. I may use a newspaper as my "primary" means of gathering news, but slowly the internet takes up more and more of that role until it finally flips. Also, the study uses the very general term "news" which could cover all sorts of things. People use newspapers for certain types of news, radio for others, tv for something else and the internet for something else. Trying to generalize "news" across all media to determine how people are getting their news can be highly misleading in recognizing how important each type of media really is. Either way, this won't make newspaper publishers relax very much if subscription numbers continue to slide.![Hide This Hide this](https://ii.techdirt.com/s/t/i/topclose.png)
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Portability
Comuters, Workers on Lunch Breaks (who want to leave the desk, or are dissuaded from surfing), Business Waiting Rooms, Shoppers needing coupons or pull-outs
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lol
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I don't think there's any question that the dominant media form is now the internet. The history of media tells you that you follow the the money - ad money - to see where people are.
There is the possibly that newpapers just morph into news portals, and still have paid writers and accountability, but why aren't people prediciting the death of books? (or should they be?)
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Newspapers on the other hand? I can see these being replaced as computers advance; the problem now is portability. I have the image wireless internet everywhere and people on their commute to work looking at the New York Times on a tablet that is constantly updated and contains videos where just pictures would be and the Wall Street journal with real time quotes.
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Newspapers.....
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Newspaper serve local markets
To many people national and world news is secondary to reports on k-12 school events and sports, obituaries and local government and this is where there is almost no quality coverage on the Internet. As long as there is local news and local advertisements there will be newspapers, even if they are online or downloadable.
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So, yes, the newspaper is useful - for sh*t.
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Fish and chips for dinner tonight...
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plenty of people still read newspapers
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Re:
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Newspapers
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Also, some businesses are okay with you reading the paper at work, but frown on using the internet. Until that climate changes, newspapers will be in business.
All of this may change as the new generation becomes adults. We'll have to wait 20 years and so how it affects sales.
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Newspaper
I never had any use for yesterdays news, have always listened to some radio and tv news, but those to are pretty much yesterdays news. I love the internet where I can scan and read what I want or print out an article I especially like without having to subscribe to the rest of the garbage in local and or national news rags.
I really don't care much to the mainstream media, and get most of my news from what is considered off the wall news sites, but actually they tell it like it is instead of trying to slant it one way or the other.
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I couldn't imagine lunch without reading the paper for a bit and doing the crossword.
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Re:
egg cartons work great :P
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The most important grounding aspect is the tittle tattle. One can't have a dinner converstation with normal people without some grasp of local concensual reality. What is Kate Moss wearing? Who has transferred to Manchester United? Is the dollar still falling against the Euro?
Then I go back to my heaven and hell of code, pointers to pointers to fuctions, equations - a wordless world. Internet "news" is just a disposable gap filler, even though it contains insights that a mainstream newspaper would never publish. It is so unlike a newspaper which has a coherent feel, it's disparate. The internet for entertainment is like watching TV sped up 100 times while surfing channels. It's a dissociated stream of factoid snippets, barely coherent illiterate rants (including those I write), Slashdot, Digg, YouTube clips, Beta animations, Techdirt, always with one eye on an xterm spewing compiler output while I sit here, a temporarily useless human awaiting output. I can shout back at its nonsense in fragmented outbursts, like round after round of a FPS game, because once the coffee hits the bloodstream my fingers won't stay still and my brain doesn't disengage. Maybe I should take up Yoga.
But anyway, newspapers - they are relaxing, and comforting in a way that on-screen information can never be. Thay are a one way conversation, they say "shut up and read me", and I generally laugh while I read them, especially at the so called "serious" stories. So I guess I agree with James Bond and Justice Trvth, crosswords are good for the mind too, but I hate those sudoko puzzles, too much like actual real programming work.
I thik newspapers will be around for a while.
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I get all my news from newspapers - online
Television and Radio news can't go into the stories in as much depth as print -- whether your read it in newsprint or online.
If someone asked me in a poll whether my primary news source was newspapers, I'd say yes. If they asked me if my primary news source was the internet. I'd say yes. Same thing.
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newspapers
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newspaper decline is inevitable
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classic
i don't know who's idea was it to get rid of all things that are not up to date and new and replace them with a computer...
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TatterTools LOGO
this is tattertools logo?
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total cost of delivery
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