The rise of online digital media and technology has caused a transformative shift in the way that we now access news, entertainment, and conduct our day-to-day lives. Online social media platforms whether that be news outlets or not, have become a core pillar as to how we now consume media in the modern 21st century.
As an economics student, I am encouraged to keep up with the recent news and market updates…. and I mean I do not know about you, but I do not make walking to the local supermarket to get my daily newspaper, a core part of my morning routine. I just simply turn on my phone and open the plethora of news apps that I flick between- whether that be the Financial Times, The Economist, Vogue or El Mundo (Spain’s Main Newspaper- *I try and be the Spanish economics student that I am and, key word here, attempt to read some Spanish news in the mornings – brain cells very dependent*).
If I’m feeling particularly lazy, I just turn on a podcast as I’m walking to Uni and receive all the daily updates I require, through the ease of a podcast.
The picture that I am trying to paint here, is that for myself and many students around the world, accessing the news is more often than not through online mediums. Thus, I wanted to explore what these current and apparent trends mean for the newspaper industry and draw some insights into what the future of the journalism industry may be.
Over the past decades, the competition faced by traditional print newspapers with the rising number of online platforms has unfortunately contributed to the sharp decline in newspapers’ advertising revenues. Forcing many print newspapers to begin to not only redesign their business model, but also the way that their company is organised.
Due to many other businesses shifting their advertising budgets away from the traditional newspapers and magazines towards other digital mediums.
The global newspaper publishing market derives about 57% of its revenue from advertising. In countries such as the US and UK, the reliance on advertising is extremely high, thus for many newspapers across the globe, they are having to abandon their traditional methods for a more innovative approach.
With trends pointing towards a future, whereby the larger and more financially stable newspapers are becoming increasingly more reliant on digital circulation for revenue, rather than through advertising. This gives evidence to the fact that by simply expanding their online social outreach, and for those that do not have an online news coverage, that they need to begin to diversify their approach. A report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism described how a “second wave of disruption” had hit news organisations, with publishers such as the Economist having to employ large social media teams to optimise their posts and maximise traffic.
The challenges that the newspaper industry is facing are not limited to only English-speaking markets, with newspapers in Switzerland and the Netherlands, for example, having lost half of their classified advertising to the Internet.
Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic has only made these trends worse by exacerbating the decline in advertising revenues- particularly impacting several core newspaper advertisers such as retail, movies and promoting community events- and facing further job losses and newsroom closures.
With newspapers reducing overall staff levels, whilst in an economic sphere is undesirable for those that are now facing unemployment, this has also directly restricted the breadth of coverage for which the newspapers can report – thus potentially leading to an under-reporting of important news. Creating what can be argued as a “vacuum” in the information landscape. Studies have shown that these declines in employment have led to a reduction in the amount of political coverage by newspapers. A study that was published in 2021 in PNAS found that the average share of news stories in local newspapers in the US that were investigative have declined on 2018 levels.
The rise of online news sources has made it possible to access news and information without having to purchase print newspapers, and newspapers and magazines are now struggling to compete with the instant access and convenience provided by digital media. Online mediums provide customers with faster and a more visually demonstrative style than a typical newspaper, for which is constrained by the physical format and physical distribution. The OECD has observed that newspaper readership is usually lower amongst younger people, of whom tend to attribute less importance to print media, that other generations.
However, despite this the internet has made it possible for news organisations to reach a much wider audience than ever before, with the ability to publish all news mediums (i.e., photos, articles, videos, podcasts…), news organisations are now able to maintain a global outreach in real-time – given the ease of publication, and the instant nature of online social mediums. This has caused an increase in the diversity of voices and perspectives in the media, through a greater variety of sources, than ever before. Furthermore, the lower costs associated with an online- only format creates new opportunities for smaller news companies.
Overall, digital technology if harnessed in the right way will enable the newspaper industry to innovate for survival in the digital age. Whether that be through a supplementary online news platform or diversifying their business models. This could create a new diverse field of voices and perspectives in the media. Whilst the future of print media is uncertain, this shift from print to digital may become a necessity for news organisations survival, rather than a desired shift in the market.