One thing that jumped out to me about the newspaper business is the lack of “heft”. It really seems like one of those vicious cycles that starts out with cutting back and only seems to be going downhill. First it starts with circulation, then the advertisements go and then the journalists are sent packing. The numbers are pretty scary when you really think about it. According to data, newsrooms shrunk 25% over the past three years.
I appreciate that the outlook for 2010 is positive but personally, I don’t know if the increase of prices is really going to be that beneficial of a change. Of course, this all ties into the whole “newspapers going digital” situation. Granted, the audience is made up of a considerable amount but the idea of charging for online subscriptions may do more harm than good. If the audience begins to dwindle, history might repeat itself and online advertisements are going to start dropping news sites as well.
This is definitely a two-sided thing. Convenience is something that has to be continuously taken into account. Currently, six in ten Americans get their information in the form of online news; this number is probably going to only increase as time goes on. The article did also mention that unlike an actual paper, people graze over several different news websites. It’s the presence of convenience again; different sources of news in a matter of no time. As much as people can hold faith to the original newspaper, I think online news is only going to increase in popularity.
