My central Idaho hometown newspaper serves only the tiniest of high-alpine, rural valley towns. Surrounded by cattle ranches and miles of untouched mountain forests, the local source of news has not changed since the first family-owned presses went into being in the region. As I discovered on New Year’s Day, seeing it on the screen of an iPhone, like so many other newspapers in America, the Idaho Mountain Express has gone online.
The media’s most dramatic trend is the decline in print newspaper readership and advertising revenues, and the response of newspaper companies publishing content online. The effect of the declining readership has been devastating, and the decline of print news will forever change the media landscape.
Nationwide online newspaper readership has grown 11 percent year over year, faster than the increase the growth in total active Internet users which was 3 percent, according to research by Nielsen/NetRatings. According to the study, one out of four American Internet users consumes their news from online sources.
The rise of internet news production relates to its convenience of access, immediate reporting, and selectivity by readers. Internet sites also offer interactivity such as article forwarding, blogging, comments, streaming video and audio clips which make the experience all the more enjoyable online. Readers today also receive news almost instantly upon any amount of engagement with the internet on their handheld devices or email.
Just four decades ago, all consumers of news relied on print media or radio broadcasts. The growth of a new source of news has reduced traditional print newspaper readership. The Audit Bureau of Circulations reported that newspaper circulation fell 2.6 percent among the top 20 largest newspapers in the U.S. in just six months, the largest drop recorded in two decades.
The rise in alternate sources of news and demise of newspaper readership has, in turn, caused advertising revenues to fall so low so that they can longer support the print publication and original gathering of news. Traditionally, print publication was the favorite medium for advertisers to effectively reach target audiences.
Today, with the decline in readership, and increase of alternate advertising mediums, companies are not willing to pay large sums of money for advertisements, if they choose to do so at all. Since their peak in 2005, nationwide advertising revenues have fallen by one third and see no end. In 2009, revenues continued to decline by 21 per cent according to the Financial Times. As a result, some of the largest newspapers in the country such as the LA Times and Chicago Tribune, all part of Tribune, are joining the ranks of more than a dozen local newspapers that are folding all over the country every year. Oversupply, in combination with declining newspaper readership, is killing any demand for advertising.
As people turn to online sources of information, the biggest online newspapers will attract the bulk of new readership with near instantaneous reporting and greater selection of news articles, editorials, blogs, videos and pictures. With the playing field no longer equalized by the quality of the product that rolls off the presses every morning, the biggest losers will most clearly be local newspapers.
Presently all solutions to the problem seem to breed government dependence or require the abolition of highly localized news reporting. French government authorities have injected $776 million over three years, doubling government advertising and offering tax breaks for the investments of newspaper publishers. Local publishers have lobbied the British Parliament to reduce anti-trust legislation and allow newspaper consolidation to increase newspaper size and monopoly power. It is not that large newspapers don’t already exist, but both of these potential solutions require a dangerous dependence on government – dangerous because the newspaper plays the central role in holding all levels of government accountable. Also, unless economic utility is completely disregarded by government policy, larger newspapers will be favored and smaller newspapers will grow in size, ultimately destroying localized news reporting.
This is just a brief overview of the declining readership, advertising revenues, and circulation – all part of a phenomenon that is reshaping the American media landscape – an example of 21st century change that may not be for the best.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d00f013a-1261-11de-b816-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
http://news.cnet.com/Study-Online-newspapers-flourish/2100-1025_3-5953393.html
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