The future of newspapers

The future of newspapers

Read this article from the Economist on the future of newspapers.

On your blog, write a paragraph summarising the argument the article makes. Then answer the following questions:

The extract describes how newspapers have lost the most to the internet and this is apparent across the USA, Western Europe, and Australia. This is a matter that has been going on for years; though, the failure has intensively increased over the last few years. “The Vanishing Newspaper” by Philip Meyer predicts that by 2043 the newsprint will die in the US. This sort of theory is ambiguous to some; however more youths are turning to the internet for their news and everyday stories. UK’s 15s and 24s say they spend almost 30% less time reading newspapers once they start using the internet. Advertising is another component talked about within the article. Switzerland and the Netherlands newspapers have lost half their classified promotion to the web. The article mainly emphasises on the idea that the print industry has not yet been completely died out but slowly the small institutions are beginning to be harmed by this - general corporations are trying their hardest to uphold their position as a print platform. Additionally, the new might of “citizen” reporters and bloggers are introduced. The article also explains how the web has allowed the niche world of professional editors and reporters to voice their opinion for matters they are interested in. Therefore, some experts have suffered from this. This article confirms with their idea that in the future an elite group of newspapers could be available online, alongside, independent journalism funded by charities.

1) Do you agree with its view that it is ‘a cause for concern, but not for panic’?

Traditional news has always been sought out to present liable and reliable information, however in modern day their decline was a result of the NDM, where news is now free and more convenient through the use of electronics and the Internet, however not presenting the same level of professionalism and trusted sources. The panic here as a result for news corporations is that they need to combat this decline and find a different platform to pioneer and act as a catalyst to the news industry again.

2) The article is 10 years old - an eternity in digital media terms. Have the writer's predictions come to pass? Use statistics from your Ofcom research to support or challenge the writer's argument.

This article suggests that the newspaper industry will be in decline and potentially die out; according to Ofcom the audience of newspapers has reduced more than 27% since 2005 resulting in 72.4%of people would have used newspapers in 2005. However, in 2015 45.4% of consumers use newspapers, showing clear evidence that there is a decline of newspapers. “Some high-quality journalism will also be backed by non-profit organisations [...] An elite group of serious newspapers available everywhere online, independent journalism backed by charities, thousands of fired-up bloggers and well-informed citizen journalists" The New York Times didn’t want a decline financially so they increased their prices in order to produce more revenue with then could result in their profit margin increasing too. However, because it is seen as a typically style of culture, consumers won’t really mind the increase in price for the professional piece of journalism.

3) The Economist suggests that high-quality journalism in the future will be backed by non-profit organisations rather than profit-seeking media corporations. Is there any evidence for this? How is the Guardian funded? What do major stories from the last year such as the Panama Papers suggest about how investigative journalism is conducted in the digital age?

The Scott Trust ltd. funds the Guardian newspaper together with having a charitable position which manages the Guardian generally. However, the Panama Papers for example shows secret journalism and the change that it causes in the media which is key to have a social media and online platform to quickly upload material to reach a wide span of audiences across the web in a range of different countries.