Jillian Jiun Tzu Liew S3247379

Electronic Publishing (COMM 1218)

Assessment Task B: Major Academic Project

1.0 Introduction
This report will attempt to provide a broad overview of the print newspapers and online
news controversies that are currently in the news of late. The issues discussed will be of
relevance to the main topic of electronic publishing and new media. There will be a
thorough investigation into the motivations and reasons behind the growth of online news
and digitized media formats. The financial struggles that the print newspapers companies
are currently facing are of vital importance and will be looked into. The most debated
issue and of concern is the efforts of online news websites wanting to put up pay-walls
for readers to access online content. This matter is certainly of great importance with
various views and opinions being argued and affecting different focus groups as well.
The social networking and interactive online community aspects cannot be overlooked
too as they are one of the main driving forces behind this rapid shift from print to screen
news.

1.1 Topic Area

The main topic area that this report will be discussing about surrounds the issue of the
majority and general news media shifting from the traditional print newspapers and
moving towards online and digitized news content. The issues brought up include the
financial concerns of the newspaper companies, whether content should be made
available for free or not, the interactive and social factors of digital news, and what the
future may present for the online news industry. The report will focus on the general
discussions surrounding these particular issues that have been going around in the news
of late.

1.2 Title
Why is there a shift from print newspapers to online and digital news?

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1.3 Research Questions

There are three main questions that this report will attempt to present a comprehensive,
cohesive and succinct answer to. The themes and questions will firstly include
discussions about the financial challenges and implications facing both the print and
online news industries. This will be followed with the free versus paid and premium
content availability online debate. The final issue to be covered will be concerned with
the social and community aspects of what the new online and digital news media has
introduced with the Internet.

1.4 Project Objectives

The main objectives of this report are to discuss about the ongoing trend of accessing
news in the digital sphere and moving away from the traditional print newspapers. The
report will be exploring the advantages and disadvantages of online newspapers
providing free and or paid content, the reasons behind the shift in trend to digitized news
media, social media integration to increase reader participation, the rise of citizen
journalism, and tackling the flailing advertising revenue in newspaper companies.
Finally, this report will hopefully shed some light on how the print newspaper companies
will be able to revamp their aging business strategies and learn to adapt to the changing
environment of social networking, user-generated news reporting and creative online
advertising tactics.

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2.0 The Financial Challenges

The news that the newspaper industry has been facing a radical downturn in recent years
is unsurprising and not unexpected. The great shift from reading traditional ink and print
newspapers to screen and online news reading has resulted in the newspaper industries
facing financial struggles. Even with increasing people reading the news online, there is a
decrease in the overall number of people reading the newspaper as recently surveyed in
the United States of America. (Pew Research Center 2009)

2.1 Diminishing Print Newspapers Revenue

The traditional print newspapers companies and industries have been experiencing steep
and drastic decline in their revenue streams particularly in the advertising and readership
sectors. Online newspaper websites articles and reports have actually been reported to be
repeating similar stories in print newspapers. (Knowledge @ Wharton 2007) These
instances have lead readers and customers to question the necessity with paid print
newspaper subscriptions anymore when one could get the same content for free but
online. Falling print newspaper subscriptions revenue is a precursor to a more serious
problem where advertising in print newspapers has been declining steadily in recent
years. (Shiels 2009) The major brands and advertising companies that used to focus on
newspaper advertising is shifting to online news advertising, which has caused newspaper
companies to cut advertising rates and its costs. The various other reasons will be
discussed in the following sub headings that contribute to its diminishing revenue and
also the ascent of online news media.

2.2 Innovative Online News Advertising

There has been strong incremental growth in the revenue stream for advertising on online
news websites of late. Most major brands have begun to realize that there is a market for
online advertising and have tapped into this business venture. A positive return from
online news advertising is that there is a financial kickback that newspapers are receiving
from online traffic directed through search engines. (Shiels 2009) This effect is not
unexpected and is fairly typical of most online news websites with a creative advertising
scheme. With more and more readers switching to obtaining their news online rather than

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print newspapers, online advertising revenue has seen an increase. (Buskirk 2010)
Despite the cost cutting rates that newspapers have had to deal with online advertising,
revenue is experiencing growth in this sector, which has the companies having to rely on
this revenue stream even more than ever before.

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3.0 The Free and Premium Online Content Debate

There has been plenty of debate and heated discussions concerning paid and freely
available news content on online news websites in recent years. This is compounded by
the recent court case of the Google Books settlement and with Rupert Murdoch wanting
to block Google’s RSS news feed of allegedly stealing or leaching off numerous online
news websites without paid access. (Sabbagh 2010) Other reasons for increased support
for free content is ease of accessibility, concisely reported news and economically
sustainable. (Lewis 2010)

3.1 Freely Available Content

The argument for content being made available for free at online news websites is
growing and gaining a lot of support from various groups including certain writers,
prominent journalists, bloggers and readers. Currently the majority of the online news
and community websites providing free content is smaller and market to a niche group of
readers. (Hirschorn 2009) The websites’ content is mainly user-generated with most of
the articles being written by the community that reads them. Online publications like
“Family Features” and “Just A Pinch” media are providing freely available content and
allows for syndication as well. (Tornoe 2010) The rationale for keeping online news
content free is that by attempting to put up a pay-wall system, this will cause online
readership numbers to fall. This is because that there are many other substitute online
news sources that one can refer to next when a particular news website has limited access
to. Putting up a restricted access online news website is not an actual hindrance for most
readers where they themselves are the sources, writers and contributors as well.

3.2 Premium or Paid Content

At the other side of the fence, there is also the argument against freely accessible online
news content and that online news providers should put up a pay-wall and begin charging
readers for premium access to limited portions of a news website. This argument for paid
content is to aid the struggling newspaper companies that are suffering financial
difficulties in falling readership numbers and subscription revenues. Another main reason
for paid content is legality issues regarding copyright, syndication and distribution of

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news on the Internet via Really Simply Syndication (RSS) methods. (Darnton 2009)
“Journalism Online” is a multifaceted newspaper syndicated aggregator that provides
publishers with wider options of charging their news content for online access.
(Moynihan 2010) This provides a form of a safety net for professional journalists to be
assured that they and their works are protected from being distributed for free and they
know that they are being compensated for their writings. In addition, another reasoning
behind the support for paid content is that there are readers and subscribers who will be
willing to pay for superior content when they know that they are getting their value
worth. (Reid 2009) Quality journalism and reporting costs money hence the reason as to
the willingness of readers subscribing to paid and limited online news content when they
realize that the experience can be made richer when it coincides with reading the
newspaper as well.

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4.0 The Social Media and Community Dynamics

Finally there is the social media aspect and community presence changing the way that
news reporting and journalism has been operating for decades. The social media
phenomenon and social networking sites are one of the main driving forces behind the
changing faces of news, journalism and reporters. (Lavrusik 2009) The shift from print to
digital news media can be traced back to the continuous growth of social networking
websites such as Facebook and Twitter in addition to social networking tools like Google
Reader, Wordpress, and various blogging resources.

4.1 Social Media Networking and Technology

The rate at which social media networking websites and technologies are growing is
outstanding that the print newspaper companies have trouble keeping up with. With the
various social media and networking tools users growing at an exponential rate, this trend
has affected the way that journalism and news reporting will be happening in the near
future. (Lavrusik 2010) There are numerous methods by which one can share news
through the Internet and it is not limited to simply emailing someone a piece of hyperlink
text that connects to a news link. A prime example of how a major newspaper company is
trying to keep up with these societal and technological changes is the Washington Post.
(Knowledge @ Wharton 2007) The Washington Post is only one of the many major
newspaper companies that are trying to stay afloat amidst the struggling print newspaper
industry. One of their attempts at trying to assimilate into the social media culture is by
setting up their own social networking mechanism to allow for a fully functional social
and community experience on the Internet. This will hopefully integrate themselves with
the social networking community before it is too late.

4.2 Citizen Journalism and User-Generated Content

There is a new trend emerging called citizen journalism and user-generated content that is
causing traditional journalists and reporters to reassess their own methods of breaking the
news whether on print or on the Internet. Prior to social media tools and networking
technologies, the standard by which reporting and journalism was done were very rigid
and bureaucratic in nature. (Wheeler Centre 2010) There is also a problem of newspaper

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journalists regurgitating news from online sources without actually going out in the field
and doing the proper reporting. (Sidiya 2009) There have been various instances where
online news websites have operated quicker and moved almost seamlessly in reporting
breaking news and coverage than their print newspaper counterparts. However, the real
issue with the flailing state of newspaper reporting stems from ordinary citizens of the
world having greater access and freedom than ever before to operate in real-time and
deliver timely information. The Washington Post are trialing some attempts at
incorporating citizen journalism articles into their website to be more inclusive of user-
generated content. (Knowledge @ Wharton 2007)

4.3 Interactive Online Community

There is a massive online community that is actively participatory, interactive,
communicative and engaging in dialogue almost every second of every day with the
advent of these social networking sites and tools. Where there did not exist the proper
channels for readers to comment on print newspaper stories, news and opinions, there is
an abundant ways and methods for almost anyone to make their views heard by the
newspaper companies now, which mostly exists on the Internet. (Sidiya 2009) Social
media and networking technologies have paved the way for easier, cheaper and quicker
methods to make a reader’s voice be heard by the mass public and in effect the influential
newspaper heads as well. When the newspaper companies cannot identify that they have
lost the Internet generation to the digitization of news, there exists the very problem of its
inability to communicate and interact with them on a more personal level. (Wheeler
Centre 2010) The power to communicate, connect and sometimes influence the outcome
of a news piece is what empowers the reader and makes the online news community that
much more interesting, interactive and intellectually stimulating.

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5.0 Recommendations
The reasons for the newspaper industry downturn as described above does not mean that
the death of the print newspaper is imminent although numerous articles and news have
been reporting on it for years. There are various strategies that some newspaper
companies are undertaking to ensure that the pressures of digital media integration do not
bury them.

5.1 Metered Paid Content

Although the case for freely available online content is persuasive and competently valid,
there is also a market for paid content that is moderated and rolled out in staggered
stages. Some online newspapers have already started to roll out the pay-wall for access to
premium content and it is predicted that many will follow suit. The New York Times will
be implementing a more structured metered pay-wall system in January 2011. (Warren
2010) The change in The New York Times plans and policies is to maintain their
advertising revenue while also ensuring that traffic to their online website are not affected
negatively by this paid content system too. The majority of visitors to the NYT website
arrive there through search engines and hyperlinks where they may never be charge for
this content at all. However, customers who have print subscriptions will have full access
to the website without any extra charges. This system is not unfamiliar to what Variety
magazine is currently doing where it offers non-subscribers limited time access to certain
articles for free. This metered scheme is intended to be more approachable than the all-
or-nothing system that other newspaper websites have attempted to implement but failed.
The success of this depends on the amount of content being protected by this pay-wall
and extra incentives that an online news website can provide for the reader. (Buskirk
2010)

5.2 Social Media and Community Integration

The newspaper and publishers need to identify their core problems of not being able to
adapt to social media technologies and lack of an online community interaction and
dialogue between journalists and readers. The time to amalgamate the traditional and
narrow thought of newspaper reporting with the more liberal and open aspects of the

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social networking community cannot come sooner. (Lavrusik 2010) To ignore the fact
that social media has played and will affect the way that news will be reported and
disseminated in the future is to nail your own coffin shut on newspaper industries
everywhere. The face journalism and news reporting is changing to reflect a growing
number of writers and reporters coming from blogging backgrounds. The social media
community and social networking tools make it increasingly easier for anyone, anytime
and anywhere to report on a piece of news at their own personal web space or in an
online community. (Hirschorn 2009) Facebook, Twitter and various social networking
tools and portals make it possible for almost anyone to connect with any person,
company or brand. There is no good reason for newspaper companies to ignore this trend
lest they cease to become relevant and another online news company seeks to take their
market share and place.

5.3 Content Specialization

To avoid being pushed away into oblivion, newspaper companies may need to identify a
niche market or specialize in a brand and content to maintain readership markets. There is
an emerging trend especially in the magazine publishing companies that the key to
maintain and increase readership numbers is to specialize in a particular brand or niche
market. (Lavrusik 2009) There is a strong focus for newspapers to understand the wants
and needs of their readers and subscribers to be able to cater to them better. (Hoffman
2006) By simply aggregating a compilation of various and typical news sources, this is
not enough to sustain growth in numbers of readers and new subscriptions. Both print
newspapers and online news websites have to ensure consistency, quality journalism and
brand recognition to maintain customer loyalty and market share.

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6.0 Conclusion
Thus in conclusion, the issue of print newspapers being brought to extinction by the trend
of online news availability still remains unclear and open for more discussions. There is
an issue of emotional attachment to print newspapers that this report has not touched on
but is still of high importance. (Darnton 2009) This emotional trigger of holding a
newspaper may stave off the impending death of the newspaper for several more years
while the trend of digitization of news will still continue. The diverse and complex issues
investigated in this report have only skimmed the surface of the print versus online
newspapers discussion. There needs to be a deeper and comprehensive research into the
socio-economic aspects and emotional attachment triggers that contribute to the shift
from print to digitized news. (Pew Research Center 2009) Despite the struggles that print
newspapers have been experiencing, there is still a confidence in the industry that print
media will remain stalwart as it has been for decades since the printing press came into
existence.

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