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

Newspaper Industry - Essay ExampleWe shall attempt both sides of the argument individually so as to gain proper insight on the issues pertain 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 pellucid in the steady decline of readership and circulation which has since become more of a norm than an exception, with readerships dropping in judge as high as 16% (Miller, 2005) The internet affects print media on three major frontiers, advertizing 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 direct to severe rates undercutting which has in turn dug into the revenues of the newspapers resulting in job cuts, plagiari sm and writing of off-key and fictitious stories and events with shameless abandon (Hughes, 2006). The reason for this can partially be attributed to the fact that advertisers try to hike up their products to the highest possible audience at the lowest make up, the internet offers a better than perfect substitute for newspapers for some(prenominal) 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 nonpareil or two pages, these options are relatively 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, at that place are lesser limits to the size of the advertisement in relation to the total surface area easy 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 preferably a lot, actually about 21times that of the online advertisement (Karp, 2007). It is therefore quite clear that online 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 advertisers website where he can attend 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 slap-up contrast, advertisements in newspapers are limited to showing a single picture which may not be as attractive. The