Monday, September 28, 2009

Challenges Facing Newspapers

I was browsing online and just thought I would share some more information on newspaper decline. According to Paper Cuts, a Web site tracking the newspaper industry, at least 120 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down since January 2008. Also, more than 21,000 jobs at 67 newspapers have been lost in that time, according to the site.


Newspapers are struggling to meet challenges faced by changing reader habits, a shifting advertising market, and a weak economy. Amid the decline comes concern over who can assume newspapers' traditional role as a watchdog. For more than 200 years, that role has been a central part of American democracy.


Many industry analysts agree more papers will soon become extinct, and most two-newspaper towns will likely disappear, possibly by the end of 2009, some experts say. They say, among the next newspapers to go are major metropolitan dailies relying on an expensive business model. The challenges facing newspapers go back before the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Daily subscriptions per household began a steady decline in the 1920s, yet the newspaper industry survived despite competition from radio and television.


Today, easily accessible, high-speed Internet connections and smart phones have dramatically changed the way people get their news. However, news is still in strong demand. Paul Gillin, a social media consultant, said such losses are to be expected for an industry that has failed to adapt to the influx of online publishing tools and social networking sites. “Information has become democratized today,” said Gillin, who has predicted print newspapers will disappear by 2015. “You get a lot of advice from your friends, blogs and multiple media sources. Who reads just one newspaper?”

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