Newspapers in competition with another to ensure they have enough consumers so they can make money from advertsing to survive.
However it is becoming difficult for papers to complete with e-media services
Over the last decade the Uk's daily newspapers have lost 2.25million readers . This means less money as advertising revenues have also fallen by about 20% over last 10 years.
Some in the nespaper industry say within the next 10years we could see 1-2 Britains biggest newspapers close
WHY ARE NEWSPAPERS IN CRISIS?
1) Ignoring signs of change:
since 1980's institutions have been able to access news through networks and now through internet , newspapers ignored these early signs of change
2) Dismissing unconventional competitors:
They ignored new ways of access to their businesses : E.G distributing their news now through internet, tv,periodicals etc
3) Experimenting too narrowly
Some didn't spot the rise of digital tech and experimenting. E.G :Some just copy their news online rather than encouraging audiences to interact
4) Giving up on experiments too quickly
Promising business take time and even setbacks, some newspapers didnt give new ideas a chance to build
5) Embarking on a "Crash Course"
Many institutions felt they wern't embracing technology quickly so pushed for merges which didnt work.
Most institutions have been slow to embrace the web but now use it for their target audiences
But it is proving harder to make profits from online publising than it is in print .
So many free news sites= audiences not prepared to pat money to read news online .
So...web has to rely on adverts for income..
However online advertisers have many more spaces to choose from and alongside this there is less certinty of who will see adverts =
More Complex & Competitive
IMPACT OF ONLINE TECHNOLOGY ON NEWS
Traditional Paper Based Form Online News Site
Has a purchace price-Not free Has mostly free contentCan be accessed anywhere
Easily marked or destroyed Content remaines even if portal of access destroyed
Usually targets a specific audience
Cost to produce paper,printing etc
Cost to distribute Cheap to distribute
Can offer countless news/archive stories
BUT may be re-workings - coppied
Only print version of story available
Cannot be updated immediately/regualrly
Not interactive Can be interactive
No audience UGC/feedback/citizen journalism
Can offer depth analysis/comment BUT limited Varied opinions for expansion of matter/
depth editorials / comment
AUDIENCE GRATIFICATIONS OF THE GUARDIAN WEBSITE
Feature Audience Gratification
Long running chat board Network of web blogs
Leaving comments on articles Audience feel powerfull- idea that they are
challenging the news institutions values
Readers can acces articles online,phone,RRS,Ebook
Varied categories in easy accessible genre areas
Images
Podcast
Access to paper-based content
Dating sites/Personals
SHOULD NEWS BE FREE?
and also stated news by the BBC made it “incredibly difficult” for other news organisations to ask people to pay/suscribe
He stated that ".It is essential for the future of independent digital journalism that a fair price can be charged for news to people who value it.”
NewsCorp are driven by the need to make money whereas BBC, a PSB is less economically concerned as they are gov funded .
News Corporation has said it will start changing online customers for news across all its websites and generate money from subscription, but this doesntmean that people will pay.
ONLINE NEWS = THE DEMOCRATISATION OF NEWS ?
It is the changing lifestyles
of audiences that pose the biggest problem for newspapers.
Murdoch; “The internet
has given readers much more power. .... people are taking charge of their own lives and they read
what they want to read or what they are interested in and young people today are
living on their computers. The world is changing and newspapers have to adapt
to that.”
Media producers go further in how
audiences are shaping the news.
Editor of Reuters, Chris Cramer said:
“These days journalists rarely break the story,
most compelling pictures come from eyewitnesses, and not from journalists.
...
citizen journalism is
not a fab or an intriguing addition to traditional journalism, but here to stay...
Passive audiences are gone forever...
...media owners need to embrace the ‘digital conversations’ with their new, activist, audiences.”
Passive audiences are gone forever...
...media owners need to embrace the ‘digital conversations’ with their new, activist, audiences.”
Cramer’s comments upove highlight several
things:
- Advanced technology mean that audiences can record news and offer it to news institutions
- New institutions have to recognise the fact of eye-witness audience accounts if they want to be successful
- The journalist’s role has to be about the checking and verifying content of an active audience rather than researching and relating the news themselves. This shows precisely what the role of a journalist should be in the future.
The nature of news production is
changing so media organisations are having to adapt to a ‘news revolution’ = the switch from mediation of info by a
professional / elite : TO : active citizens that are generating news
stories themselves.
Newspaper institutions E.G: The New York Times have recognised that the
news-gathering in the future = a partnership between professional
and citizen journalists. New York
Times is helping community websites = a way to get
news from local sources.
BUT
bloggers of news
are usually middle-class, young adults who are not exactly covering the
kind of news that adults/ (other demographics) are interested in. so... a group of people may not have their opinions voiced in the news, or may
not find anything of interest to them.
AUDIENCE POWER??
Audiences are more active in the way
they consume news. E.G: online communities =access to info
& not restricted by the legal rules that apply to news institutions.
E.G : active participation when the Twitterverse (the new
name for the world of ‘Twitter’) + Wikileaks who supported The
Guardian against a company who had legally ‘gagged’ the newspaper from revealing
their illegal actions on the Ivory Coast.
The audience uncovered links and
applied some pressure by writing about the company and soon the information
was made available.
Another E;G = of audiences challenging editorial
decisions = The Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir’s article about the death
of Boyzone singer Stephen Gateley led to protests over its homophobic tone.http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2009/oct/19/power-of-social-networks)
This went worldwide + audience
flooded the Daily Mail’s website with negative comments about the article and
its author.
The P.C.C. (Press Complaints Commission) has had 21,000 complaints
about this story.
This highlights that a editorial judgement can create
web outrage even affecting the advertising revenue as Marks and Spencer removed
their ads from the Daily Mail website.
So far, nothing has been done to sort out this issue
with the newspaper itself, or the journalist.
“Perhaps what it does highlight is that Moir, or her editors, or both, misjudged the speed of the web and social media in their power to highlight and pressurise"
“Perhaps what it does highlight is that Moir, or her editors, or both, misjudged the speed of the web and social media in their power to highlight and pressurise"
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