Newspaper troubles

EXTRA! EXTRA!

Once the unmistakable call of the paper boy, but now most think of the entertainment celebrity news show on TV.   Many embrace evolving technology, but are we really ready to say goodbye to one of our oldest forms of communication?

Newspaper circulation saw its biggest decline of 7.1 percent this past April.  Some due to the state of the economy, but free online news sources also played a major role.  An article on Yahoo Finance says that newspapers picked up again after 9/11—people wanted to hold an account of history.

Do many people feel that newspapers are more like artifacts than a daily news source?  I’ll admit I’m not a big newspaper reader, but I remember that I HAD to have an ‘Obama elected’ copy.  I wasn’t necessarily a diehard Obama supporter, but the keepsake seemed important to have at the time.

More importantly, newspapers aren’t receiving enough revenue from ads, let alone from subscription sales. Businesses are straying from advertising in print and shifting toward an online community. A Media Daily News article says newspapers have “seen their print ad revenues implode due to Internet competition.”    I think we would all like to see them stick around, but it just may not be financially possible in the future.

Almost 20 years after the start of the Internet and initial newspaper revenue decline, it’s still not looking up for our inky news.  People simply have the need to participate in quick, two-way communication—hence the magic of social media.  I don’t see the demise of the newspaper anywhere soon, but it’s definitely only a matter of time before they become a thing of the past like beepers and VCRs.