Is Newspaper on its Last Leg?
Newspapers used to be on everyone’s doorstep when they woke up in the morning. There to greet them with the “latest” news, humor, sales and of course… advertisements. A lot of them. Unfortunately, all of this information is now much easier to access and even more current. This means the old school printed newspaper is quickly fading into oblivion just like your corduroy jacket and bell-bottom jeans.
Why has the newspaper been declining? I think we can all agree that technology killed the newspaper. Why wait for your news when you can get it instantly on your phone or computer? Its relevancy comes in to play as well. If breaking news has to be printed and delivered, it becomes old news by the time it reaches its readers.
What about ad space which competes with our industry?
The industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001. Ad sales are way down and the number of firms is steadily decreasing.
If you don’t have readers you won’t sell ads. The majority of ads that are still bought in newspapers are to target a specific audience: the baby boomers. Which only makes up 25% or less of the US population. And even some of them have adopted technology as their source of news.
