The Spread of the News Media through the Internet

Introduction

The evolution in information technology has altered not only the shape of the media landscape, but also the very concept of communication. Traditional forms of communication in past decades were either point-to-point (between a single sender and a single recipient) or a broadcast (between a single sender and multiple recipients) (Iyengar, 2007, p.105). The rise of the Internet and information technology has by far had its greatest impact on the print media. This new development of the internet has provided and permitted us to simultaneous send point-to-point and broadcast forms of communication for the first time, and it has provided individual users with access to an unlimited audience. (Iyengar, 2007, p.104).  For the most part, any user in the internet network of computers that makes up the World Wide Web is both a sender and a receiver. In terms of news media, the amount of readers that are able to access the online publication of a newspaper has increased dramatically. Whereas, local newspapers only print in local markets and, thus cannot reach a wider national audience, online publications have increased its online readership, thus meaning that the paper circulation has decreased. Without a doubt, the pace of proliferation of information technology has astonished all observers and has an immense influence in the readership and circulation of local and national newspapers.

Background

            According to Iyengar (2007) About 10 years ago, roughly 14% of adult Americans said that they used the internet (Iyengar, 2007, p.105). As the end of the 20^th century approached, this figured had more than tripled to half of the entire population. This is accredited to the universal spread and access of the internet. More people have computers at home than they did 20 years ago, and most college students own a personal laptop. In Iyengar (2007) a study found that: Millions of people visit the internet news sites on a regular basis, as of early 2005, nearly one in three Internet users read a newspaper online (Iyengar, 2007, p. 106). In a study conducted by Cyberjournalist.net in 2005, it ranked the most visited websites in terms of newspaper articles. At the top of the list was Yahoo! News with about 25 Million visiting the site on a weekly basis, MSNBC had about 24.8 Million, CNN had about 22 Million, AOL News had about 16.5 Million, The New York Times and USA Today were both at about 10 Million visitors per week. These numbers would seem unimaginable 10-15 years ago. With the spread of the Television as a new media outlet in the late 60’s, it somewhat supplanted the newspaper as the main media from which people obtained their news.

In an article in the Washington Post in 2005, Shin writes that, Circulation at the 814 of the nation’s daily newspapers have declined 1.9 percent over the six months ended in March 31 compared with the same period last year (Shin, The Washington Post, 2005).  This decline in the in the distribution of the top newspapers in the United States continues to follow a 20-year trend in the newspaper industry. As consumers begin to turn to other media, predominantly the Internet and cable news networks as their source of daily information. Newspaper industry experts blamed the National Do Not Call Registry. This law has made newspapers to rely less on telemarketing to secure its subscribers (Shin, The Washington Post, 2005).  Newspapers relied on telemarketing to obtain an average of 60-65 percent of their home delivery subscribers. However, as a direct result of this registry, newspapers subscription by mail has been diminished.

Newspaper decline is due in part to many policies and cause and effect mechanisms. One of those is the National Do Not Call Registry. Many also point to the concerns in the declining circulation of newspapers circulation and readership due to the rise of the internet. The jobs of those street vendors, the morning delivery trucks and those that work at printing locations may be at risk. Print journalists are also losing their jobs in the past few years; the same period has also witnessed a sharp decline in newspaper stocks, advertising revenue, page counts and circulation (Democracy Now, 2008). Many cutbacks have been made by many newspaper companies to offset the losses.  These cutbacks have become evident on the coverage of international as well as national news. About two-thirds of American newspapers cover foreign and national news than they did about three years ago (Democracy Now, 2008). 

Potential Benefits

            Clearly many critics of online newspaper publications believe in a more traditional form of readership. They argue the jobs lost, the cutbacks and essentially the deterioration in foreign and national news coverage. However, the potential benefits do exist in terms of marketing the name and image of the newspapers. Many newspaper companies have deployed a new task force of employers that seek to market and sell the newspaper to the reader. Internet ad revenue is also another untapped market. The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today along with other prominent national newspapers are already reaping the benefits. Smaller local newspapers have the potential to do the same, only if they are able to better adjust to their local market and then branch out on a national level and international level. Without the Internet, people in for example Ireland, would have no clue that a newspaper called the Chicago Sun-Times existed. . However, unlike conventional media, Internet-based communication is multi-channel, allowing the intermingling of text, voice, still messages, and video online (Iyengar, 2007, p. 124). The internet has also increased the amount of information that is open to the public, as well as the consumers’ ability to control which type of information they’re being exposed to.

Further Required Research

As it is with almost every new type of media that is developed by technology (e.i. radio, television) and now the Internet, it is always very different to gain the ultimate impact of the Internet. A new form of media could potentially develop that alters the landscape of news distribution even further than what the internet has already managed to accomplish. More research needs to be done in the area of whether the internet fully displaces or just merely supplements newspapers in the long term. More research also needs to get done on the strategies that newspapers are implementing to attempt to offset the losses in revenue. Yet despite the increasing evidence which shows that the internet attracts consumers from traditional media such as radio and television, little work has been done to determine how the audience for traditional media has changed in response to the internet (George, 2006, Pg. 2). To understand the impact that the Internet has already had in its short amount of existence is crucial if we are to understand its long term impact. 

Conclusion

The role of the Internet in this new day and age has undoubtedly altered the landscape for the distribution and readership of newspapers. The decline in circulation is a trend that has continued in the last 20 years, cutbacks have been made by newspapers and jobs have been lost. Most newspapers in the United States have a print and an online version of the paper. The Internet has however increased the marketability of certain newspapers not only on a national, but on an international level as well. This means that you can read about what goes on in a small town in Ohio by simply typing in a few words in your browser. Advertising, something that for the most part offset the cost and distribution of newspapers is also something that needs to be remodeled. Giant newspapers such as The Washington Post among others have found ways to advertise online, thus making their online publication economically viable. The impact that the internet has had on the news media is immense, the ultimate fate of print media is the question at hand for many researchers who have yet to figure out this phenomenon. One thing is certainly clear and that is that the Internet has and will continue to change the way newspapers adapt in terms of their marketing and economic strategies.

Bibliography

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