The Newspaper Death Watch

xianfox · 04-30-2008, 02:58 PM

Interesting read from Advertising Age.

It's a terminal decline, if you believe experts such as Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California at Annenberg. His research suggests traditional media in general must learn to shrink but newspapers in particular are a special case. "When an offline reader of a paper dies, he or she is not being replaced by a new reader," he said. "How much time do they have? We think they have 20 to 25 years."

rhadin · 04-30-2008, 07:36 PM

Sadly, I think they may be right. I won't read a newspaper online or on my Sony Reader; I want the paper version. OTOH, my son only reads the newspaper online and won't buy a print version. His philosophy is that if it isn't available online, it isn't worth reading (speaking of newspapers and magazines -- with books, he still reads the print version).

I guess I'm old enough to distrust online sources for my news intake. I figure it is easy for malhackers to make the real surreal even in newspapers online, which gives a leg up to the reliability of the print version (not that it doesn't have its own malwriters

).

Alexander Turcic · 05-02-2008, 04:02 AM

I am somewhere in the middle. I prefer the paper edition of my daily newspaper; but I prefer to read it online

Luckily, they offer PDFs that fully resemble the paper in both, content and style.

Alisa · 05-02-2008, 01:08 PM

I prefer reading my local newspapers online, as well. What concerns me, though, as more of us switch to online news rather than print, is that the local paper with local news and local advertisement will not survive in either format. I find this rather troubling as I watch America becoming more and more homogenized. Local flavor is disappearing as downtowns and local business give way to strip malls and Wal-Marts.

Right now local papers are going online and getting more traffic than ever but the advertisement revenue isn't following. The local businesses that are used to advertising in the paper haven't quite made the transition to advertising online. The web isn't really viewed by most as being a local thing. Aside from the business ads, classifieds have largely moved to Craigslist, Ebay and employment search websites like Moster, HotJobs, etc. Even obituaries are starting to move online. Those were the other big money-makers for the local paper. So while the local news is out there, they're just not getting the revenue they need to keep going. The two local newspapers I read are both in desperate need of cash. I've considered subscribing to their Kindle editions just to give my support even though I don't think it's that great a format for newspapers with the current physical limitations.

wmrawls · 05-02-2008, 01:34 PM

Our local paper only adds value to our family about 3 days a week, one day when the Grocery ad's are published and Saturday and Sunday, Saturday for the gardening and local area section and Sunday for the "Major Retailer" sales ad's and color funnies.
A good friend of mine was separated ( the news paper does not "lay" off people because its not politically correct to link a paper to a business decision) from his head of Sales and Advertising position at the local paper. Seems he has been unable to meet targets for the last two years, targets that were being increasing aggressive because of loss of revenue. Apparently his superiors at the paper could not understand that "retailer websites" and "e-bay" and "Craig's" list could exist and be a replacement to the average person for their need to list, sale and look for items of interest.
The only reason I take the paper 7 days a week is that the artificially raise the subscription rate for subscribers that only want it on the weekends. Seriously it is more expensive for a 2 or 3 day subscription than it is for 7 days.

And the constant pressure by the environmental groups telling kids that paper is bad and kills trees and that will lead to doom and gloom does not help the business model for any profit oriented group. Of course, in our neck of the world, we understand that "Pine" trees are a cash crop, a renewable resource that creates jobs, something that seems to get lost on some.

But back to the point, I fully believe that Newspapers in print are an endangered species, I don't think they will be around in 10 years much less 20.....

Steven Lyle Jordan · 05-02-2008, 02:37 PM

I agree that major papers will be marginalized into online forms, where they will be much more effective overall, and much less wasteful.

Local papers may continue to be paper-based a bit longer, at least until they can figure out a revenue stream that allows them to go online (though you'd think the money they'd save from printing and distribution costs should help their bottom line a lot). At least local papers tend to be smaller, so they do not use (i.e. waste) as much paper as major periodicals.

I do think that ultimately all the papers, and all but the most high-quality printed magazines, will go online for economy of scale and wider, easier distribution reasons. Remember, the wider your distribution (potentially worldwide when online), the more you can get for advertising, so many of those periodicals stand to benefit from the wider distribution that online will provide.

This will highly depend on the quality and ease of use of periodical reading devices available in the future... color will be a great attraction for many users, especially kids, and SFX like animated graphics will help to win others.

HarryT · 05-05-2008, 04:28 AM

For "news" I read the BBC News web site.

For "local information" I read the local paper, but that (like most in the UK now) is free, being funded by ads.

Sparrow · 05-05-2008, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

...For "local information" I read the local paper, but that (like most in the UK now) is free, being funded by ads.

And you get it shoved through your door whether you want it or not

.
'Local' papers should be left in local shops - pick one up if you want it, but spare the rest of us getting litter through our letterboxes.
My local paper is, quite literally, rubbish. After leafing through a few editions in the dim and distant; it now goes straight from the doormat to the recycling bin.
A pointless waste of resources.

HarryT · 05-05-2008, 07:35 AM

We have quite a good local paper. I don't read it "cover to cover", but I generally leaf through it and find a few items of interest.

TallMomof2 · 05-05-2008, 07:54 AM

Where I live I receive 3 free local papers weekly in the mail. Occasionally, I find an interesting article or bit of news but for the most part it goes into the recycling bin after less than a minute.

My "city" paper is The Washington Post, I prefer to read online but DH, the Luddite

, still wants the "paper" paper. Late last week The Washington Post corporation which also owns Newsweek announced that they had around a 35% loss due in large part to buyouts at Newsweek. I think that their stock value has dropped about 14% this year. The Post has had buyouts and closed down a printing plant so I know that their financial troubles are nothing new and will probably continue.

Steven Lyle Jordan · 05-05-2008, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

Where I live I receive 3 free local papers weekly in the mail. Occasionally, I find an interesting article or bit of news but for the most part it goes into the recycling bin after less than a minute.

I get only 1 weekly paper in the mail, but my situation is similar (I usually get 10 minutes out of scanning my paper). My major local is also the Washington Post, but I get most of my news online, from various sources including the online Post, CNN, News.com and general news searches.

History lesson: Back when the whole internet thing was still new to most people, the Post not only opened its own web site, but became an ISP, offering exclusive news access and an e-mail address to subscribers. I had an account for most of its run, and enjoyed online access to some of the paper--not all of it was online at the time--until the Post decided to ditch the ISP biz, and cut me off without a warning one day! (No, I have still not forgiven them...)

KoopaOne · 05-05-2008, 01:16 PM

I seem to be a bid konservative here. I never went to the homepage of my daily newspaper, not my local newspaper.
I enjoy reading them on real paper in the monring while having breakfast...

For the "fast" news, i use alot of RSS-Feeds ...

04-30-2008, 02:58 PM	#1
xianfox Ebook Addict Posts: 225 Karma: 2136 Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Appleton, Wisconsin, USA Device: Onyx BOOX Note Air 4C, Palma	The Newspaper Death Watch Interesting read from Advertising Age. It's a terminal decline, if you believe experts such as Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California at Annenberg. His research suggests traditional media in general must learn to shrink but newspapers in particular are a special case. "When an offline reader of a paper dies, he or she is not being replaced by a new reader," he said. "How much time do they have? We think they have 20 to 25 years."

05-02-2008, 01:34 PM	#5
wmrawls Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 20 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Rock Hill,SC Device: Sony PRS 505, Dell Axim X50V	Our local paper only adds value to our family about 3 days a week, one day when the Grocery ad's are published and Saturday and Sunday, Saturday for the gardening and local area section and Sunday for the "Major Retailer" sales ad's and color funnies. A good friend of mine was separated ( the news paper does not "lay" off people because its not politically correct to link a paper to a business decision) from his head of Sales and Advertising position at the local paper. Seems he has been unable to meet targets for the last two years, targets that were being increasing aggressive because of loss of revenue. Apparently his superiors at the paper could not understand that "retailer websites" and "e-bay" and "Craig's" list could exist and be a replacement to the average person for their need to list, sale and look for items of interest. The only reason I take the paper 7 days a week is that the artificially raise the subscription rate for subscribers that only want it on the weekends. Seriously it is more expensive for a 2 or 3 day subscription than it is for 7 days. And the constant pressure by the environmental groups telling kids that paper is bad and kills trees and that will lead to doom and gloom does not help the business model for any profit oriented group. Of course, in our neck of the world, we understand that "Pine" trees are a cash crop, a renewable resource that creates jobs, something that seems to get lost on some. But back to the point, I fully believe that Newspapers in print are an endangered species, I don't think they will be around in 10 years much less 20..... Last edited by wmrawls; 05-02-2008 at 02:54 PM.

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04-30-2008, 07:36 PM	#2
rhadin Literacy = Understanding Posts: 4,833 Karma: 59674358 Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: The World of Books Device: Nook, Nook Tablet	Sadly, I think they may be right. I won't read a newspaper online or on my Sony Reader; I want the paper version. OTOH, my son only reads the newspaper online and won't buy a print version. His philosophy is that if it isn't available online, it isn't worth reading (speaking of newspapers and magazines -- with books, he still reads the print version). I guess I'm old enough to distrust online sources for my news intake. I figure it is easy for malhackers to make the real surreal even in newspapers online, which gives a leg up to the reliability of the print version (not that it doesn't have its own malwriters ).

05-02-2008, 04:02 AM	#3
Alexander Turcic Fully Converged Posts: 18,175 Karma: 14021202 Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Switzerland Device: Too many to count here.	I am somewhere in the middle. I prefer the paper edition of my daily newspaper; but I prefer to read it online Luckily, they offer PDFs that fully resemble the paper in both, content and style.

05-02-2008, 01:08 PM	#4
Alisa Gadget Geek Posts: 2,324 Karma: 22221 Join Date: Aug 2007 Device: Paperwhite, Kindle 3 (retired), Skindle 1.2 (retired)	I prefer reading my local newspapers online, as well. What concerns me, though, as more of us switch to online news rather than print, is that the local paper with local news and local advertisement will not survive in either format. I find this rather troubling as I watch America becoming more and more homogenized. Local flavor is disappearing as downtowns and local business give way to strip malls and Wal-Marts. Right now local papers are going online and getting more traffic than ever but the advertisement revenue isn't following. The local businesses that are used to advertising in the paper haven't quite made the transition to advertising online. The web isn't really viewed by most as being a local thing. Aside from the business ads, classifieds have largely moved to Craigslist, Ebay and employment search websites like Moster, HotJobs, etc. Even obituaries are starting to move online. Those were the other big money-makers for the local paper. So while the local news is out there, they're just not getting the revenue they need to keep going. The two local newspapers I read are both in desperate need of cash. I've considered subscribing to their Kindle editions just to give my support even though I don't think it's that great a format for newspapers with the current physical limitations.

05-02-2008, 02:37 PM	#6
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	I agree that major papers will be marginalized into online forms, where they will be much more effective overall, and much less wasteful. Local papers may continue to be paper-based a bit longer, at least until they can figure out a revenue stream that allows them to go online (though you'd think the money they'd save from printing and distribution costs should help their bottom line a lot). At least local papers tend to be smaller, so they do not use (i.e. waste) as much paper as major periodicals. I do think that ultimately all the papers, and all but the most high-quality printed magazines, will go online for economy of scale and wider, easier distribution reasons. Remember, the wider your distribution (potentially worldwide when online), the more you can get for advertising, so many of those periodicals stand to benefit from the wider distribution that online will provide. This will highly depend on the quality and ease of use of periodical reading devices available in the future... color will be a great attraction for many users, especially kids, and SFX like animated graphics will help to win others.

05-05-2008, 04:28 AM	#7
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	For "news" I read the BBC News web site. For "local information" I read the local paper, but that (like most in the UK now) is free, being funded by ads.

05-05-2008, 07:35 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	We have quite a good local paper. I don't read it "cover to cover", but I generally leaf through it and find a few items of interest.

05-05-2008, 07:54 AM	#10
TallMomof2 Kindlephilia Posts: 2,017 Karma: 1139255 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Snowpacolypse 2010 Device: Too many to count	Where I live I receive 3 free local papers weekly in the mail. Occasionally, I find an interesting article or bit of news but for the most part it goes into the recycling bin after less than a minute. My "city" paper is The Washington Post, I prefer to read online but DH, the Luddite , still wants the "paper" paper. Late last week The Washington Post corporation which also owns Newsweek announced that they had around a 35% loss due in large part to buyouts at Newsweek. I think that their stock value has dropped about 14% this year. The Post has had buyouts and closed down a printing plant so I know that their financial troubles are nothing new and will probably continue.

05-05-2008, 01:16 PM	#12
KoopaOne Austrian Bookworm Posts: 141 Karma: 2138662 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Austria Device: Pocketbook Inkpad 4	I seem to be a bid konservative here. I never went to the homepage of my daily newspaper, not my local newspaper. I enjoy reading them on real paper in the monring while having breakfast... For the "fast" news, i use alot of RSS-Feeds ...

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