Newspapers Soon Extinct?
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
By: Amy Johnson
In a recent interview with Rupert Murdoch, chairman and major shareholder of News Corporation, says he can see the day where newspapers will be gone and electronic databases will take over.
It could take 20 years to displace newspapers, “but I do certainly see the day when more people will be buying their newspapers on portable reading panels than on crushed trees,” says Murdoch.
It makes perfect sense. It would cost less money and eliminate the need for printing presses and paper. A vast majority of the United States' citizens already go online to read their daily news. Having the local newspaper available via the Internet or a cell phone seems brilliant.
The Wall Street Journal is one of the only newspapers in the United States that has been successful in charging for an online subscription. A plan to start charging non-subscribers a mere $2 every week has been put into action while those who already have subscribed will only pay $1.
One question is this – how are small town newspapers going to handle this? Not every small town is going to find this online newspaper feasible; the equipment needed may be too expensive and finding people who are familiar with computers may prove to be more difficult. Will this be the end to small time newspapers? Only time will tell.
2 comments:
Small town newspapers have more of a hold with their readers than bigger newspapers like the New York Times, so I think they would actually last longer in print form instead of having to constantly compete with other big namers. Eventually, they will have to make the switch over, but they have more of a sympathetic vote with their locals.
In general, I think newspapers are going to have to prepare to make that change over to internet. If newspapers begin to charge, like what the Wall Street Journal is doing, they may still see some revenue. It may be a long time coming, but it may soon work out for both readers and reporters in the long run.
I think that small town readers have a stronger base of loyal followers than bigger newspapers. Small town life is more fascinating to the small town people and they cannot go online to find out what is going on in their small towns. The people from big towns will make the transition to online reading before small town people do in my opinion.
I would agree that in the future the newspaper will most likely not exist. People would much rather open their phones and read the news than have to open up a paper and read it. Hopefully the online papers will start to produce money so more journalists can find work.
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