It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the American newspaper industry isn't exactly doing too well these days. Newspaper readership is down across the board, newspapers around the country are sending their employees to unemployment offices and they just aren't making that much money. Newspaper penetration, the number of households reading newspapers, is down to 18 percent, compared to 33 percent in 1946. Clearly, there's a bit of a trend here.
The question that begs to be asked is: Why is this happening? There are a lot of possible answers to explain for the decline in the newspaper business. This list includes but is certainly not limited to: The horrible economy; competition from blogs; and declining ad revenue just to name a few.
Undoubtedly, the Internet is playing a big role in changing the way people get their news. It is now the third most popular news source for Americans behind local and national broadcast television news. Over 60 percent of American adults now get at least some of their news online.
To better understand the American newspaper industry it is essential to take a look at the major players within the traditional newspaper industry examining their basic business models in the process:
News Corp.
Run by everyone's favorite Australian-American mogul, NewsCorp is a global, vertically integrated company. They have their fingers in a lot of pies all over the world including films, television, newspapers and magazines. NewsCorp is the world's largest publisher of English language newspapers, including the New York Post and the Wall St. Journal.
Hearst Newspapers
These guys are big players in the newspaper business as well, owning 15 daily newspapers. Hearst is also big into magazines with 14 US titles and nearly 200 international titles under their ownership. They are also one of the biggest owners of television stations with 29 stations in the US market.
New York Times Company
The New York Times Company has a heavy hand in the newspaper publishing industry owning 15 daily newspapers. The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune are all owned by the New York Times Company.
Clearly, the newspaper industry is controlled mostly by a few large corporations. How are they responding to the changing face of journalism? Are they responding enough? These are questions that will be addressed specifically in future blog posts.
More important is the question of why. Why does it matter if the newspaper industry disappears? What will the consequences be?
Some argue that blogging will fill the void created by the demise of the newspaper industry.
However, many within the field of journalism disagree, citing claims that most blogs rely on reporting from traditional print publications. They say that bloggers, while good intentioned, do not have the same reporting skills as professional journalists and are incapable of achieving the same quality of meaningful analysis. Moreover, they point out that most blogs, even the most popular ones, pay their contributors nothing— leaving no place for the professional journalist with extensive specialized training.
The current debate about the role of the Internet and the demise of the newspaper industry is amazing in the aspect that all of these changes have taken place so quickly. To close out this post and put the whole issue in perspective take a look at this 1981 news report on an early effort to publish a newspaper online. While this could very well be a scene straight out of the movie Anchorman, it is truly a prophetic piece.
The question that begs to be asked is: Why is this happening? There are a lot of possible answers to explain for the decline in the newspaper business. This list includes but is certainly not limited to: The horrible economy; competition from blogs; and declining ad revenue just to name a few.
Undoubtedly, the Internet is playing a big role in changing the way people get their news. It is now the third most popular news source for Americans behind local and national broadcast television news. Over 60 percent of American adults now get at least some of their news online.
To better understand the American newspaper industry it is essential to take a look at the major players within the traditional newspaper industry examining their basic business models in the process:
News Corp.
Run by everyone's favorite Australian-American mogul, NewsCorp is a global, vertically integrated company. They have their fingers in a lot of pies all over the world including films, television, newspapers and magazines. NewsCorp is the world's largest publisher of English language newspapers, including the New York Post and the Wall St. Journal.
Hearst Newspapers
These guys are big players in the newspaper business as well, owning 15 daily newspapers. Hearst is also big into magazines with 14 US titles and nearly 200 international titles under their ownership. They are also one of the biggest owners of television stations with 29 stations in the US market.
New York Times Company
The New York Times Company has a heavy hand in the newspaper publishing industry owning 15 daily newspapers. The New York Times, The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune are all owned by the New York Times Company.
Clearly, the newspaper industry is controlled mostly by a few large corporations. How are they responding to the changing face of journalism? Are they responding enough? These are questions that will be addressed specifically in future blog posts.
More important is the question of why. Why does it matter if the newspaper industry disappears? What will the consequences be?
Some argue that blogging will fill the void created by the demise of the newspaper industry.
However, many within the field of journalism disagree, citing claims that most blogs rely on reporting from traditional print publications. They say that bloggers, while good intentioned, do not have the same reporting skills as professional journalists and are incapable of achieving the same quality of meaningful analysis. Moreover, they point out that most blogs, even the most popular ones, pay their contributors nothing— leaving no place for the professional journalist with extensive specialized training.
The current debate about the role of the Internet and the demise of the newspaper industry is amazing in the aspect that all of these changes have taken place so quickly. To close out this post and put the whole issue in perspective take a look at this 1981 news report on an early effort to publish a newspaper online. While this could very well be a scene straight out of the movie Anchorman, it is truly a prophetic piece.
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