Day 250

Fresh Start_250: Is print media dying?

In a study by Pew Research Center; the newspaper workforce has shrunk by about 20,000 positions, or 39%, in the last 20 years… but after a decline of 3% in both weekday and Sunday in 2014, 2015 saw circulation fall even more rapidly. Furthermore, a national survey of 1,520 adults conducted March 7-April 4, 2016, finds that Facebook continues to be America’s most popular social networking platform by a substantial margin: Nearly eight-in-ten online Americans1 (79%) now use Facebook, more than double the share that uses Twitter (24%), Pinterest (31%), Instagram (32%) or LinkedIn (29%). With the trust in the media dropping faster than newspapers can cut staff, millennials don’t have a strong trust in media. ” If I could change print media I would force all writers to have moral integrity and high standards for their work” said SUNY Cobleskill Junior Joslen Pettit. Going on to say “Younger generations seek things that send a strong message to them and they can smell someone faking it and being disingenuous a mile away.”

What this study shows is that more and more people are migrating online, rather than picking up a newspaper from their local corner store or newsstand. The convenience of going online to find news for people is at an all-time high with the ongoing innovation of every smart phone company. Newspapers are getting harder to sell and supplying a newsroom of top notch reporters makes it that much more difficult. The news is getting out, but instead of writing a certain amount of words for the type setters to fit on page 6 of the New York Times, writers are getting paid on how many clicks and shares they get on their article. As you can see above, the impact that Facebook and Twitter have in our society today has a huge impact in the news cycle. Facebook as a matter a fact, became a big part of the most recent Presidential Election with how much news was being shared. Fake or not, the news cycle that Facebook draws is quickly becoming more relevant than the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, or New York Times.

However, this might not be the end of print media as we now it. The same study by the Pew Research Center stated: Amid these declines, print remains a vital part of newspapers’ distribution picture. In 2015, print circulation makes up 78% of weekday circulation and 86% of all Sunday circulation. Only three newspapers had more average weekday digital circulation than average weekday print circulation in the same period. With that, Pettit would add “no form of media really ever dies but rather its user base just continues to shrink.” This is true, look at radio and television along with the written word. Radio once was the driving force of news and content, now it has found its only little niche in the society. Television doing the same, and with history looking to repeat itself, print media will do the same thing.  

With the ever evolving online form of consumption, print media, in particular newspaper is struggling to find their new niche in this online society. In 2017, the ways of consumption of news is at an all-time high in ways that we can consume. Younger generations seem to come out of the womb with an iPad in hand, while also completely understanding how to operate it. Print media will find its own niche in the society—with the money following it, but it is up to the American public to define that roll. How do you truly want your children and grandchildren to consume print media? Go make that vision happen.

Sources:(pewresearch.org)

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