Newspapers: The decline in print media

Newspapers: The decline in print media

Our next topic is newspapers: an industry that has changed hugely in the last 20 years due to the impact of the internet.

In the lesson, we looked at the history of the newspaper and some key terminology we need to learn:

Newspapers: hard and soft news

Newspapers cover a range of stories that are generally divided into two categories:

Hard news: stories related to current affairs, politics, economics, wars and other serious news.

Soft news: stories related to entertainment, sport, celebrities, gossip, scandal and human interest/lifestyle topics.

Newspapers: tabloid and broadsheet

Newspapers were traditionally available in two sizes: tabloid and broadsheet. Today, most newspapers are in the smaller broadsheet size but the terms are still used to describe the style of paper:

Tabloid: focusing largely on soft news, famous examples include the Sun and the Mirror. Generally read by more working class audience. Mid-market tabloids are a middle ground between tabloid and broadsheet and include the Daily Mail. 

Broadsheet: serious newspapers that focus more on hard news. The Times, Guardian and Telegraph are all examples. 

Newspapers: sources of news

Newspapers tend to get their news content from two sources:

Journalists: newspapers employ reporters and photographers to attend events, interview people and write stories. 

News agencies: Reuters and Associated Press are examples of global news agencies that are independent institutions that employ journalists to write stories that newspapers and other media organisations can pay to use.

Increasingly in the digital age, newspapers are sourcing news from their audiences using citizen journalism. This is sometimes criticised as creating clickbait – an example of soft news aimed simply to attract online readers.

The decline of newspapers

In the last 20 years, the newspaper industry has faced a sharp decline due to the rise of the internet.

In 2003, almost 30 million newspapers were sold in the UK every day. By 2017 that was down to 12.4 million (source: Ofcom). 

Newspapers have traditionally made their money in two ways: through the cover price and by selling advertising. With so much news available for free online, audiences are not buying newspapers so both these sources of income have been decimated.

The Wall Street Journal produced a short video demonstrating how the industry has changed in the last 100 years:

Once you've learned the key terminology, watched the video and considered the decline in the industry, work through the blog tasks below.

Blog tasks: The decline in print media

The impact of Google

Read this article looking at the impact Google has had on the traditional newspaper business.

Answer the following questions:

1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?

"Google guys have apparently sucked the lifeblood out of the media business by siphoning off billions in advertising revenue over the past decade or so."

2) Find a statistic from the article that illustrates the decline of traditional news media.

"more than $40 billion, or about 60 percent of the ad revenue the industry generated at its peak in 2000, according to figures from the Newspaper Association of America — and they draw a direct line connecting that with the in advertising revenue that Google brings in every year from AdWords"

3) Looking at the graph featured in the article, what period has seen the steepest decline in newspaper advertising revenue? 

from 2000 to 2010

4) Do you personally think Google is to blame for newspapers closing and journalists losing their jobs? Why?

to some extent as google has taken most of the ad revenues as companies would rather place ads on google rather than in a newspaper. however some newspapers have been able to adapt and become an online news outlet and make some money from ads on their site.

5) Read the comments below the article. Pick one comment you agree with and one you disagree with and explain your response to the comments in detail.

"You can’t single out Google just because it’s the largest digital company. Patch, for example, invested hundreds of millions into journalism in the US and continues to search for the model that will work going forward. There are many who are investing in the future of journalism."
I agree with this as there's other search engines and sources of information that both do and dont promote journalism and google is only singled out as they are one of the main digital companies.

Ofcom report into news consumption 2018

Now read this Ofcom 2018 report on the consumption of news in the UK. Note down the key statistics and changes that Ofcom highlight and answer the following questions:

1) Look at the key findings from the report on page 2. How do UK adults generally get their news? 

TV is the most-used platform for news nowadays by UK adults (79%), followed by the internet (64%), radio (44%) and newspapers (40%).

2) Read the overall summary on page 8. How popular are newspapers as a news source? How does this compare to other news sources?

BBC One is the most important news source, used by 62% of UK adults, followed by ITV and Facebook. When looking

across all platforms, UK adults say they use an average of 6.7 individual sources for news nowadays.

3) Look at the summary of platforms used on page 13. What audience demographic groups are most and least likely to read newspapers?

Almost all (94%) of those aged 65+ say they use the TV for news nowadays
compared to around six in ten (57%) 16-24s. Those aged 65+ are also more likely to be using newspapers and radio for news than those aged 16-24, while the younger age group are more likely to use the internet.

4) Read Section 3 on cross-platform news consumption (page 19). What newspaper brands can you find in the list of most popular news sources across platforms?

Those aged 65+ are twice as likely as 16-24s to say they use BBC One for news (82% vs. 39%), and ITV (53% vs. 27%), while 16-24s are much more likely to use Facebook (52% vs. 12%) and Twitter (30% vs. 2%) and the other social media platforms.

5) Now turn to Section 6 focusing on newspapers (page 38). How has the circulation of national newspapers decreased since 2003?

Circulation of national newspaper titles has decreased from almost 30 million in 2003 to 12.4 million in 2017.

6) What are the most-used newspaper titles?

National Sunday titles have gone from 13.9 to 5.4 million and national daily titles from 13.3 to 7 million.

7) What newspaper are 65+ people more likely to read?

Those aged 65+ are more likely than 16-24s to read the Daily Mail and The Mail on Sunday.

8) What are the most popular titles when print and online figures are combined (look at page 41)?

Daily Mailguardian
Metro

9) How does the i compare to the Daily Mail
the i:2,378 any readership
daily mail:9,356 any readership

10) Look at page 42. What percentage of newspaper users used free newspapers such as Metro in the UK in 2018 ('freesheets')?

In total, 26% of newspaper users used daily ‘free-sheets’

11) Now study the demographic details for our two CSP newspapers on page 44. What is the breakdown of the Daily Mail audience?

Daily Mail    Total/31%   Male/29%    Female/32%  16-24/22%    65+/37%     ABC1/31% C2DE/30%   EMG/31%   Non-EMG/31%

12) What is the breakdown for the i audience?

The 'i'   Total/5%   male/7%   Female/4%    16-24/%   65+/11%    ABC1/5%   C2DE/7%    EMG/4%   Non-EMG/4% 

13) Look at the summary on page 46: news consumption via social media. What audience groups are using social media for their news and what sites do they use?

More than two fifths (44%) of adults claim to consume news via social media.
 Of these, three quarters (76%) claim to use Facebook for news nowadays, followed by
Twitter (32%), then WhatsApp (22%) and Instagram (21%).
– 16-24s are more likely than those aged 65+ to use most social media channels for
news.

14) What does this report tell us about the decline of the traditional newspaper industry in the UK?

the report shows that the traditional newspaper industry is rapidly declining as people begin to switch their traditional broadsheet newspaper for social media and online news15) How can media institutions such as the Daily Mail and the i remain relevant and profitable in the digital media landscape?

they can update their sites regularly and keep up to date on topics and trends that are relevant and going digital helps as people can access their news from anywhere

Complete for homework if you don't get it finished in the lessons: due next week.