Newspaper Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Newspaper Industry - Essay Example We shall tackle both sides of the argument individually so as to gain proper insight on the issues involved in the debate. The negative impact that the internet has had on the newspaper industry is mainly as a result of the switch of consumers from printed material to electronic material for news, entertainment among other uses. The impact of this switch is evident in the steady decline of readership and circulation which has since become more of a norm than an exception, with readerships dropping in rates as high as 16% (Miller, 2005) The internet affects print media on three major frontiers, advertisement revenue, readership and innovation and technology. Since the largest source of revenue for newspapers is advertisement, newspapers stand to suffer if they do not offer competitive packages for their customers. This has led to severe rates undercutting which has in turn dug into the revenues of the newspapers resulting in job cuts, plagiarism and writing of untrue and fictitious stories and events with shameless abandon (Hughes, 2006). The reason for this can partially be attributed to the fact that a dvertisers try to promote their products to the highest possible audience at the lowest cost, the internet offers a better than perfect substitute for newspapers for several reasons. For instance, the internet has far much more ahead as far as accessibility is concerned compared to newspapers. Whereas the latter offers some options for leisure and recreation in one or two pages, these options are comparatively limited to those which the internet can offer because at the simple click of a button one can access millions of online entertainment sites. Online advertisements are also more effective because in the first place, there are lesser limits to the size of the advertisement in relation to the total surface area available wherein it might take up to a quarter of the page at a minimal cost. In contrast, a quarter page advertisement in a newspaper is bound to cost quite a lot, actually about 21times that of the online advertisement (Karp, 2007). It is therefore quite clear that onli ne advertisements are more cost effective than their print counterparts. In addition, online advertisements have the option of containing hyperlinks, which connect the user to the advertiser's website where he can find much more information about them, their products and/or services, giving rise to more opportunities of turning the advertisement leads into sales. The newspaper advertisements can do little else than just display the advertisers' contact details after the main content. The advertisements themselves have much better design when online because they may be made dynamic, which basically means that they may have movements and even sounds to accompany them which greatly enhances their memorability and ability to capture the attention of the target reader. In sharp contrast, advertisements in newspapers are limited to showing a single picture which may not be as attractive. The