The media’s landscape is
constantly shifting in order to comply with audience demands. The concept of
media convergence brings into question whether print media will survive in
today’s modern era or if news will be consumed entirely from a digital
platform. This report will investigate a range of issues relating to the
evolving media landscape to determine if newspapers maintain relevance to
today’s society.
Australia printed its
first newspaper The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser in the
early nineteenth century[1],
revolutionising the face of communication across the nation. Since its
publication in 1803, today’s well-know publishing companies including The
Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian emerged into the young face of the
media environment and remained over the turn of the centuries to communicate
information to the public of Australia[1]. Nearing 200 years of their survival, will
newspapers be able to contest with the competiveness of today’s largely
digitalised society?
 |
| Will newspapers be able to contest with today's largely digitalised society? |
After studying the
newspaper industry for three decades, author Philip Meyer sees a negative
future for print copy[2].
The Professor Emeritus of Journalism at the University of North Carolina says
that if current readership trends continue indefinitely, the last daily
newspaper will be printed in October of 2044[2]. He says that as the
newspaper industry declines at a slow but steady rate, technology prefaces by
meeting audience demands of time efficiency[3].
As new technologies continue to emerge, the Internet is scattering the mass
audience that newspapers once held.
Pew Research Centre’s
Journalism Project has released a State of the News Media report annually for
the past 12 years to outlines key statistics which examine the evolving
landscape of the media industry[4].
The findings demonstrate that although newspaper circulation is slowly
declining, readership still remains highly prominent in print copy compared to
its digital counterparts. Data shows that 56 per cent of those people who read
a newspaper rely exclusively on a print copy and do not use digital media to
read their news[4]. This evidence suggests that while the popularity
of newspapers may be on a decline as an entity, the prominence of print media
remains relevant to society’s needs.
However, further data
collected by Pew Research Centre shows that newspaper ad revenue is depleting
while digital ad revenue increases significantly. Throughout 2014 newspaper ad
revenue declined by another 4 per cent over the year to $19.9 billion dollars,
which is less than half of what it was a decade ago[4]. While
newspaper revenue continues to plummet, digital ad revenue increased by 18 per cent
growing to $50.7 billion dollars[4]. Consequently, newspaper companies
may consider ceasing print media and turning to a digital platform in
efforts to comply with the trend and ultimately increase their profits. This
will significantly impact the face of print media and will reduce its chances
of survival in the digital age.
Furthermore, job
prospects within the media industry will continue to shift dramatically. While jobs
available within the printing press will see a significant decline, there will
likely be a demand for digital and IT related jobs. User Advocate and Principal
of the Nielsen Norman Group Jakob Nielsen predicts the death of traditional media
formats however states his belief that people working in these media have a
promising future.
He says that despite the changing format of the industry, there will always be
a need for writers, editors and photographers[5]. Thus as digital
media continues to grow, the demand for talented media specialists will grow
alongside.
A study held by the
Nielsen Norman Group on how people read websites found that 79 per cent of
users always scanned any new page they came across while only 16 per cent read it word for word[6].
This suggests that in order for a company to comply with the digital age, media
workers will need to modify their skills for the interactive takeover. Web pages
will need to employ scannable text by using highlighted keywords, meaningful
subheadings and bulleted lists. It is suggested that to comply with audience
habits they should present one idea per paragraph in order to catch the
readers attention with the first few words of the paragraph[6]. They should
use half the word count or less compared to conventional writing to convey only key details
and should use the inverted pyramid style by starting with the conclusion to be able to hook the readers[6].
In order to succeed in
the digital age newspapers must revolutionise their business models to better
fit today’s society. Sandra Ordonez, a media professional who has conducted
over 350 interviews on the future of journalism, says newspapers are still
searching for effective business and editorial models that are sustainable in
the new world of media, claiming that outlets who cling on to their old methods
of doing things will die[7].
While the concept of newspapers charging for access to their website articles
was once frowned upon, it is now becoming an accepted strategy. Similarly, as
online advertising changes and banner ads are quickly becoming out-dated,
experts are urging newspapers to explore modern formats of revenue streams such
as online games or web apps[7].
For the Sydney Morning
Herald, the Age, the Australian Financial Review and the Australian,
advertising revenue is rapidly decreasing. For every dollar lost in newspaper
advertising the companies gain less than 10 cents in online advertising[8].
As their advertising revenue continues to deplete, so does their readership[8].
The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age have both lost close to a third of their
circulation in the past three years[8]. The Sydney Morning Herald
sells only 186,000 weekday copies in a state with a population of over
7 million, while the Age is selling 157,000 copies with the population of
Victoria being 5.6 million[8]. The decreased circulation of Australian newspapers is further evidenced by comparing newspaper readerships from nearly seventy years ago to today's figures. In 1947, 38 out of every one hundred
Australians would buy a metropolitan daily newspaper, while in 2013 this figure
dropped to only seven out of every hundred people[8].
 |
| Infographic made using Piktochart https://piktochart.com |
While these
popular news companies have redeveloped their business models to focus in
digital media, author and former editor of the Sydney Morning Herald Eric
Beecher says that despite the fact that the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age
have almost five times as many readers online as in print, the majority of those
website visits are generated from the consumption of free information such as
weather, property listings, recipes and ‘clickbait’ articles[8]. He
argues that few of those readers are genuinely there to consume quality
journalism.
Eric Beecher also
states that out of all of the world’s newspaper companies who are fighting for
survival in the digital age, few are as vulnerable as Fairfax Media, publisher
of the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian Financial Review[8]. He claims that no other major global newspapers were as dependent on revenue from classified advertising as the Sydney Morning Heral and the Age when the Internet arrived[8]. Ten years ago the newspapers were generating 56 per cent of their revenues from classified ads, compared to only 18 per cent at the New York Times and London Daily Telegraph, and 25 per cent at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times[8]. Furthermore, ten years ago they were each carrying approximately 200 pages of classified advertising a week compared to a continually declining 50 pages today, resulting in an extreme loss of profit[8].
In September 2005 an initiative known as 'Newspaper Next: the Transformation Project' was launched by a research team which was led by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen[9]. The purpose of this initiative was to work with companies to unveil a new business strategy for the newspaper industry[9]. The plan was endorsed by the American Press Institute and advised publishers to consider the value of their papers from the perspective of the consumers' needs. Participating companies were encouraged to ask their readers the question "what do you hire a newspaper company to do for you?"[9]
In September 2005 an initiative known as 'Newspaper Next: the Transformation Project' was launched by a research team which was led by Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen[9]. The purpose of this initiative was to work with companies to unveil a new business strategy for the newspaper industry[9]. The plan was endorsed by the American Press Institute and advised publishers to consider the value of their papers from the perspective of the consumers' needs. Participating companies were encouraged to ask their readers the question "what do you hire a newspaper company to do for you?"[9]
The early findings from
seven different newspapers working in the initiative demonstrated that the idea
of preposing that their publication was doing a ‘job’ for their readers had
transformed into innovation and advancements on both the editorial and business
sides of each company[9]. The ‘Newspaper Next’ project argued that newspaper
companies must rethink the idea of creating one bulk product and instead focus
on producing a portfolio of products[9]. One newspaper company
involved in the initiative sought to tap into the youth market by developing a
product to meet their demands for local and entertainment information[9].
Meanwhile, another newspaper addressed this recommendation by recognising their
profound audience of busy mums and responded by developing on online planner
for child-related activities[9].
While it is clear that
print media is on a steady decline, newspapers will be able to maintain their
worth in society by conforming to the shifting trends of audience demands.
Companies should restructure their business models to better fit the digital age and should generate ideas to work in cooperation with new technologies in order to maintain their value in the modern age. Companies should recognise the
values and needs of their readership to better comply with what the audience
wants. In addition, media workers will need to modify their skills to better
fit with the interactive age and meet audience trends. Print media has the
capability to survive in the digital age so long as companies recognise and
cooperate with the changing face of the media landscape.
Word Count: 1578
(Accessed 20
May 2016)
[5] https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-end-of-legacy-media-newspapers-magazines-books-tv-networks/
(Accessed 17
April 2016)
(Accessed 18
April 2016)
[8] https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/july/1372600800/eric-beecher/death-fairfax-and-end-newspapers
(Accessed 26
May 2016)
(Accessed 26
May 2016)
Data Visualisation:
Program: https://piktochart.com
Data: http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-news-media-2015/
Raw Data: Retrieved from Pew Research Centre http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/newspapers-fact-sheet/
Data Visualisation:
Program: https://piktochart.com
Data: http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/state-of-the-news-media-2015/
