Thursday, 26 May 2016

Will Print Media Survive in the Digital Age?



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]

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.



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