The News You Need Is On The Net
June 22, 2006
The stupendous growth of internet use has had profound effects upon news providers. Thirty five percent of internet users (about 50 million adults) go online for their news on a typical day, a vivid reminder that online communication is revolutionizing the way people exchange information. The days of walking out to the driveway to pick up the paper and thumb through it while drinking your morning coffee are quickly being replaced by visits to news web sites.
The rise of the internet and upcoming generations who rely more on this resource has had predictably adverse affects on traditional media sources, such as newspapers. Young people are accustomed to getting their information from the internet. Online news sources allow them to pick from lists of headlines instead of flipping through pages to find stories that interest them. Adam Penenberg, assistant professor in the business and economic reporting program at New York University, said: “They customize their news-gathering experience in a way a single paper publication could never do. And they don’t get their hands dirty from newsprint.”
Internet sites, blogs and other news sources online are receiving part of the advertising money that newspapers have traditionally seen. The challenge today is to identify the most essential elements of modern American newspapers and explore how those might be preserved and transported into the new electronic media.
Broadband Users Prefer Online News
Much of the growing trend toward online news has been attributed to the massive increase of broadband users. Once a person makes the switch to a high speed internet connection at home, his or her relationship with the Internet deepens and they do many more things online, including reading the news.
“The broadband difference is permeating the news environment,” noted John B Horrigan, Associate Director of Research at the PEW Internet and American Life Project. “High powered internet users are heavily into other media sources as well, but the preeminent place of online news suggests that it shapes their offline experience in an important way.”
A home high speed internet connection influences news consumption different ways for different people, according to PEW. One can imagine that an “always on” high speed internet connection means some users might get news more often than they would if they had slow dial-up. For some, it may push out an “old fashioned” media source. For others, it may be a supplement to an established pattern of news consumption.
Across age groups, the impact of online news is greatest for American adults under the age of 36 with a high-speed internet connection at home. For this age group, the internet is now on par with local TV as a daily source for news and surpasses national TV, radio and local papers as a news source.
Newspapers Respond To Online News Trend
John Lavine, dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University has conducted extensive newspaper readership research. “In the future, newspapers will be smaller, more expensive and more tailored to readers’ needs.” Lavine adds that newspapers will be fine “if they discover more interesting stories and then tell them in profoundly more interesting ways and then drive all of this by understanding and connecting with their audience. Then they must use the net and wireless to expand their ability to provide all of that where, when and how the readers want it.”
Jay Smith, president of Cox newspapers said the effects of the web news trend were difficult to predict. “I think it’s perfectly natural to protect what you have, to think what you have is the only thing that people want,” said Smith. “You look back on 2000 and I don’t know that newspapers ever had a better year financially. Those are the times that can lull you into a sense of complacency. Six years later things are radically different.
“The key to the future of newspapers will be to build a broad portfolio of products around the core product. Newspapers will have to establish a presence on the web and aggressively develop new online products. It’s all part of a critical transformation from newspaper companies to information companies.”
By creating new online revenue streams through targeted advertising, newspapers can maintain the freedom and leadership they have always enjoyed. Print newspapers (and their profits) may be dwindling, but their online news counterparts are preparing for their most lucrative years yet.
Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. chairman of The New York Times Company is guiding his company toward a future of “multiple platforms.” “Newspapers cannot be defined by the second word - paper. They must be defined by the first word which is ‘news.’ All of us have to become agnostic as to the method of distribution. We’ve got to be as powerful online as we are in newsprint.”
Coming Soon: Digital Newspapers
The newspapers of the future – inexpensive digital screens that can be rolled up and stuffed in your back pocket – may be just around the corner, according to a recently article published by Reuters News Service.
Some of the world’s top newspaper publishers are planning to introduce a form of electronic newsletter that will allow users to download entire editions from the web on to reflective digital screens said to be easier on the eyes than laptop and telephone displays. Flexible versions of these readers may be available as early as 2007, and will mark another dramatic step in the transition from newspaper businesses to information businesses.
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