The shift from traditional newspapers to online-based content

This week in class we continued our discussion on the transition of print media to the web and how companies have continued to extend their brand onto online media. 

In Wednesday’s class I asked a question regarding whether or not there will be a need for newspapers, radio or television in the future seeing that everything seems to be becoming more online-based. While that thought is still up for debate, Mark Briggs, author of the book Entrepreneurial Journalism suggest that the idea of news organizations needing to hire large staffs are becoming a thing of the past. “In the near future, instead of a daily newspaper with 150 journalist, a small city might have 20 digital news operations, each with a handful of journalist and each working in a clearly defined content and audience niche.” (Briggs, pg. 12). 

This shift will most likely be to the due to the digital age of media where most of the news content will be posted online and allow for news consumers to “customize” their news experience when deciding which niche suits their needs. In my opinion, traditional newspapers do not offer consumers the type of flexibility when it comes to letting consumers choose the news that they want to see versus sites such as Buzzfeed.com that provides a user-interface much more diverse for news consumers to enjoy their content and getting a more rich experience while reading news. 

Social media apps such as Facebook, Snapchat and Periscope are also providing their users with the ability to view news through their sites according to their liking. Below are just a few of the options that Snapchat users can enjoy if they want to get a quick update on news. 

While online-based news and social media sites can offer more to consumers to take over the need for traditional newspapers and reporting, the next concern would be how to keep them from monopolizing the market. 

The Internet and Its Impact on Journalism

Open to the public in 1991, the internet has become one of the most important and popular forms of media that journalist use today. It has left many other media’s such as newspapers, televisions, radio trailing far behind in terms of its reach to the public. A 2014 article written by David Carr says “Newspapers continue to generate cash and solid earnings, but those results are not enough to satisfy investors.” While the internet is still a fairly new industry compared to the other types of media, the impact that it has had on my other fields, specifically journalism and how we receive how news is staggering leaving news organizations wondering how to make a profit.

For my generation and beyond, I believe that some of us have become so accustomed to using the internet (and now social media) for our news that we tend to take newspapers and radio for granted. In the future could eventually cause those forms of media to become extinct due to the internet having everything we need all in one. Amy Mitchell states in the 2014 article “State of the News Media 2014” that “Full-time professional newsroom employment declined another 6.4% in 2012 with more losses expected for 2013.” (Mitchell, 2014). The transition of news organizations to more online-based content has both pros and cons and adapting to the internet could be the decision that can help save the company from collapsing.

One pro being that news organizations have become so competitive in getting a story out first, the internet allows for them to post news articles within a few minutes or even less versus having to spend long hours developing a newspaper. This method is not always the best because rushing to get a story out first could lead to fact errors which could ruin the credibility of that journalist. Another pro being that posting content strictly online saves paper which could mean more money to put into other things such as advertising and things of that sort, though for some people this could be an issue. In class I remember one student bringing up a great point stating that he and many others still believe in having access to tangible newspapers to read their news. Reading the Sunday paper is a tradition for many families in America and taking that experience away can leave a bad taste in many people’s mouths causing news organizations to lose readers.

Many people feel that the internet is making it harder for news organizations to make a profit for their companies because they would then have to depend on strictly advertising and clicks to make money. In my opinion I think it would be beneficial for companies to be more creative in terms of making money because the world is constantly evolving with new technologies and I am excited to see how the next generation will expand upon these technologies.