Around the country, newspapers are struggling. As online media continues to grow, print media shrinks Many small-town newspapers are publishing fewer issues a week, consolidating with nearby towns, or closing altogether. Big city newspapers aren't immune as they too see subscriptions fall. As subscriptions go, so goes advertising. As income goes, so go jobs.
The newspaper industry is looking at solutions. Many papers have an online counterpart, and a few charge a subscription fee or a fee per story. Some of these have also added apps for smartphones and tablets. Some are even looking at big-screen e-readers, larger than a Kindle, thinner, and more durable. But will consumers pay for these?
I do keep up on the local news, but I do so almost exclusively online. The Wichita Eagle posts most of their main headlines on their site, http://www.kansas.com/, and has a free iPhone app which I check daily. As much as the paper itself, particularly the Sunday edition, has been a major source of information for me for most of my life, I have to admit that my draw to the print version is mostly nostalgic.
In 2001 I moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas to attend the University of Arkansas. I enrolled in a 100 level mass communications class (which, obviously, K-State did not find sufficient) and one of our class requirements was to subscribe to Time Magazine and to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I enjoyed Time, there were some great issues and some I still have somewhere, such as the 9-11 commemorative issue and one that featured the life and death of George Harrison. The paper, however, was a nuisance.
One morning, soon after subscribing, I woke at 4:30 AM to SMACK! on the door of my apartment. As a single girl living on my own for the first time, I was halfway to the knife drawer before I realized what the sound was. It continued every morning for six months and I was never able to sleep through it. I hated dragging them inside when they were wet or dirty, and they piled up quickly. Fayetteville didn't have much in the way of recycling options at the time, so I was forced to throw stacks of them in the dumpster.
Newspapers are a bit inconvenient. They're large, they require a lot of folding and unfolding, I get ink on my hands. And then they sit, until I either cart them off or use them to wash windows (so much better than paper towels - try it!).
I prefer to read the Eagle online, but I know that the paper has to make money. This means that the more the print subscriptions fall, either the paper will have to charge for online subscriptions or the ads will become more and more intrusive. Neither sounds like a great option to me, and it likely won't to other readers either. We've been spoiled to free news and easily ignorable ads for too long. It's hard to say which I would prefer. I don't want to pay, but I also don't want to have to watch an ad video every time I check the page.
Ultimately, the fate of newspapers will be up to the consumers. Will they continue to buy hard copies? Probably not. Will they buy another device just for the purpose of reading newspapers? It's questionable. The choice is likely between paying for content or dealing with advertising. Collectively, we'll decide the lesser of two evils.
I really like this blog, and agree with a lot of what you're saying! I hate when it rains and newspapers get wet and disgusting. There's no point in even bringing them inside. Also, if I had news sent directly to my phone I'd probably pay a lot more attention to it.
ReplyDeleteI really do not prefer printed media anymore. I used to love the Eagle, until cost cutting measures drove them to use cheaper ink which did not adhere to the paper as well, usually leaving my hand blackened and sooty looking at the end of any reading. Who wants to mess with something so... messy?
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