Why are newspapers dying?

of the Internet in the 1990s, vast amounts of

information were suddenly free for the taking.
The future of print journalism remains Most newspapers, not wanting to be left behind,
unclear started websites in which they essentially gave
1 For people in the news business, it’s hard to avoid away their most valuable commodity – their
the sense that newspapers are at death’s door. content – for free. This model continues to be
Every day brings news of layoffs, bankruptcies, predominant today.
10 Now, many analysts believe this was possibly
and closings in the print journalism industry.
2 But why are things so dire at the moment? a fatal mistake. Many once-loyal newspaper
readers realized that if they could conveniently
The decline begins with radio and TV
access news online for free, there was little
3 Newspapers have a history that dates back
reason to pay for a newspaper subscription.
centuries. And while their roots are in the 1600s,
newspapers thrived in the U.S. well into the The recession worsens print
twentieth century. journalism’s woes
11 Recent economic hard times have accelerated
4 But with the advent of radio and later TV,
newspaper circulation (the number of copies the problem. Revenue from print ads has
sold) began a gradual but steady decline. By the plunged, and even online ad revenue, which
mid-twentieth century, people didn’t have to rely publishers hoped would make up the difference,
on newspapers as their sole source of news. That has slowed. And websites like Craigslist have
was especially true of breaking news, which could eaten away at classified ad revenue.
12 “The online business model just won’t support
be conveyed more quickly via broadcast media.
5 And as television newscasts became more newspapers at the level Wall Street demands,”
sophisticated, TV became the dominant mass says Chip Scanlan of The Poynter Institute, a
medium. This trend accelerated with the rise of journalism think tank. “Craigslist has decimated
CNN and 24-hour cable news networks. newspaper classifieds.”
13 With profits plunging, newspaper publishers
Newspapers begin to disappear have responded with layoffs and cutbacks, but
6 Afternoon newspapers were the first casualties.
Scanlan worries this will make things worse.
People coming home from work began turning
14 “They’re not helping themselves by whacking
on the TV instead of opening a newspaper, and
sections and laying people off,” he says. “They’re
afternoon papers in the 1950s and 1960s saw
cutting the things that people look for in
circulations plunge and profits dry up. TV also
newspapers.”
increasingly captured more of the ad revenue
15 Indeed, that’s the conundrum facing newspapers
that newspapers had relied on.
and their readers. All agree that newspapers
7 But even with TV grabbing more audience and
still represent an unrivaled source of in-depth
ad dollars, newspapers managed to survive.
news, analysis, and opinion, and that if papers
Papers couldn’t compete in terms of speed, but
disappear, there will be nothing to take their place.
they could provide the in-depth news coverage
that TV news never could. What the future holds
16 Opinions abound as to how newspapers can
8 So savvy editors retooled papers with this in
mind. More stories were written with a feature- survive. Many say papers must charge for their
type approach that emphasized storytelling over web content in order to support print issues.
breaking news, and papers were redesigned to Others say printed papers will soon go the way
be more visually appealing, with emphasis on of the Studebaker* and that newspapers are
clean layouts and graphic design. destined to become online-only entities.
17 But what actually happens remains anybody’s
The emergence of the Internet guess.
9 But if TV represented a body blow to the
*Studebaker—an automobile manufacturer in the United
newspaper industry, the World Wide Web may
States that ultimately went out of business in the 1960s.
be the nail in the coffin. With the emergence
SOURCE: journalism.about.com
Viewpoint 2 © Cambridge University Press 2013