Thursday, April 9, 2009
Before the Ink Dries
While the concept of a print newspaper isn’t necessarily from the Stone Age, it can be added to a growing list of familiar practices and customs suffering from the expansion of the Internet. And, just as the cave’s evolution to the brick home, the print newspaper is experiencing a natural development in the form of online news.
And just as I can’t think of reasons why I’d rather live in a cave than the warm comfort of my house, there is an absence of setbacks in this line of progression. On a basic level, online news is faster. Reading more into that, however, reveals the augmentation of accessibility. Whereas the paper would lay pressed, overloaded, and threatening to the casual high school or college-age reader, online news appears in comfortable, familiar layouts, complete with “search” functions and straightforward headings to lead the reader to the article or topic they desire. Increased readership is just one key feature among online news sources.
Websites like Yahoo! and MSN offer breaking news coverage right on their homepage as users check their email or participate in search engine features. The articles are archived, ready to be accessed tomorrow, or three years from now. Gone are the complex layouts of print papers, where pages had to be ruffled through, and only libraries carried the archives of print.
This evolution is not a scary thing, despite what websites like Demiseofprint.com might try to publicize. The same basic principles, the same journalistic codes (implying employed journalism, not citizen journalism, which is another topic for another time), and the same purposes are quite evident in the new-fangled online news sources. Rather, this progression takes what we had, and enhances every aspect in regard to time, effort, and convince, just as progression should.
I don’t find frightening the fact that my children will be accustomed to reports so current that “today’s news” will become obsolete before the ink dries. Come to think of it, print newspapers seem almost as outdated as yesterday’s news…
- Amir Hamizadeh
The newspaper is dying, but not the information.
The internet has become a large and vital part of people’s lives, and while the internet continues to grow, information becomes easier to access then ever before. Individuals are able to Google the internet for information that is most important and interesting to them. While the newspaper is about to become a thing of the past, all it means is that information is being transferred and dispersed through a larger venue.
Years ago an individual searching for information about Milwaukee, while living in California, would have had a tough time finding the information, but thanks to the internet, individuals who may have relocated can simply search www.jsonline.com and read local news.
The death of the newspaper is only inevitable, and as technology grows so to does society. Everything that had once been vital to our way of lives becomes a thing of the past. It should not be a shock to anyone that the most important news source available to our grandparents is being replaced by a more technological source.
The newspaper is dying, but not the information!
The Newsies

De-pressed: Why Newspapers Are Disappearing
by Stephanie Chadek
No one wants to get his or her news a day late. Unfortunately for newspapers, this is exactly how they deliver information. The minute significant stories break, Americans are naturally more inclined to flip on television news or scan internet headlines to stay in the loop, rather than wait overnight for a paper delivery.
Newspaper Association of America statistics show more and more newspapers are disappearing from circulation, or switching to an online only format. This noteworthy shift away from a print medium we've depended on for centuries is a natural transition that capitalizes on an online culture in which we receive what we want, when we want.
Online news offer several features that newspapers do not:
- customizable search options
- immediacy
- customizable content
- accessible anywhere there is an internet connection
- no subscription fees for news content
- eco-friendly
- clean, convenient format
- expanded subject coverage
- interactivity
Ultimately, the newspaper is becoming a secondary supplement to Americans primary news sources: broadcast, cable, and Internet news. This change worries many who have valued print media's dominance for ages, but this change is an inevitable one. Our culture is driven by a desire for immediacy and ease. The ways we choose to receive our news are certainly no exception.
Newspapers: The Latest Disappearing Act

No Need For Newspapers When We Have Technology

There is no need for people to go out and purchase a paper when you can read the stories online anywhere. Newspapers should have seen this coming because all the future generations are born in a technology age.
Newspaper companies need to use technology to their benefit. They could charge for their web sites and continue to look into new products like the gadget. Many papers have raised the prices to make up for the decline in sales. The online market is growing, and can be used to earn extra revenues.
Does this mean that the postal system will come to an end with the success of e-mail and instant messaging? Is the death of the newspapers just the beginning? People can now use web cams to communicate with people in other countries instead of waiting days for a letter. There seems to be no need for paper will all the electronic devices we can use instead. Technology has changed the way we conduct our daily lives.
Why Should I Care About Civic Involvement?

Say Goodbye to Black and White, the Future of Technology Seems Bright
Hoping to grow readership, defend their classified advertising franchises against new media competitors and develop a new market, the newspaper industry continues to spend billions of dollars creating and publishing online editions. Driving much of that belief is that young people are online, with a mindset believing that is where newspapers should be. Many would like to see the newspaper industry survive, but that goal is unrealistic considering the direction it is currently headed. As technology continues its advances, newspapers must evolve as well to keep up with the everchanging media outlets. Newspapers are not necessarily history; traditional media must change the way it is written to keep up with the new media.
The public just doesn't seem to be reading the newspaper as much as they used to so now seems the perfect time for serious changes to fit this new era of media. Whether or not we choose to support our local and national newspapers, it is almost inevitable that one day, we will be telling our grandchildren about the ‘old fashioned’ way to get our fix of the daily news.
Why Newspapers Are Becoming Obsolete
There is also a large population of people that can't live without having that newspaper every morning before they start their day. Newspapers inform people. Being an informed citizen is contributing to society. When one knows what's going on around them they are more likely to be engaged in the events and news happening around them.
It's unfortunate that this particular quandry is occuring. With the rise of citizen journalism it's hard to imagine a comeback of the newspaper.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Death of the Daily Newspaper and Why We’re Better Off.
Steve Beck
The daily newspaper has been a staple of our democracy since the 19th century. It is generally held true that without a free press newspaper a democracy would not stand. This country needs investigative journalism to find news and present it objectively. Without the unfolding news reports they provide; how can a citizenry be expected to act responsibly and with compulsory knowledge?
Since the early 1950’s, with the birth of television, people have been predicting the death of the daily newspaper. Information and entertainment beaming straight to your house through a screen sure sounds like the death of newspaper (it's already happening). Television could provide the investigative journalism that is needed to inform the citizenry, but it couldn’t provide everything that a newspaper could; like the personal and classified ads. It wouldn’t happen until 50 years later that ‘information on a screen’ would be mastered to the point where newspapers are practically obsolete.
The internet is the death of the daily newspaper, but there should be no tears over the loss of our old friend. The internet can provide all the investigative journalism that a newspaper can by posting the newspaper articles online. The internet can even do what the television could not: do away with the personal and classified ads through dating websites and buy/sell websites like craiglist.com. The only fault that the internet has when comparing it to the newspaper is that it cannot be directly accessed by everyone in the world; only people with a way to connect can. But, like vines up a wall, the internet is invading every facet of the world and will soon be in reach of every person in the world, thus spelling the death for the daily newspaper.
Slaves to Technology

Newspapers should have accepted the dominance of the Internet long before they got into this predicament. The circulation of newspapers dwindled at the turn of the 21st Century and newspapers realized their mistake. If newspapers want to survive, they need to start charging web users for reading online publications.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Technological Advances are Causing The Extinction of Newspapers
The time is approaching us, the ever so popular daily newspaper is becoming almost extinct in a civilization that lacks a strong economy. It could be, perhaps, that people are simply not interested in national or international news anymore, and more concerned with what is happening in their society. Or, perchace, newspapers are merely an informational tool that is part of the past, or the "industrial age." Whatever the case is, technological advances and the accessibility of the Internet have together become the main reason elite newspaper companies are seeing a decrease in their profits.
The box office, The New York Times, and broadcast networks such as CNN are all facing problems as advances in technology increase. Now, someone can go onto the Internet and read the same information they would read in a newspaper. People rely on technology for almost everything, which is why newspapers are becoming virtually pointless, but WHY? Is it because people are lazy and don't have the time to flip through large papers? Or is it because people can't afford to suscribe to newspapers during this rough economical situation?
The reasons behind the near extinction of newspapers is a difficult question to answer, but there are a few reasons that are obvious. To print a newspaper is extremely expensive, but on top of that, newspapers require a large amount of staff and machines to construct and send out the paper. On the other hand, you have a computer or other technological devices that display the same information you read in a newspaper, for practically no price. It may be accessibility of the internet or the lack of interesting content in the newspapers, but either way, newspapers are in jeopardy.
Ashley J.