Print journalism isn’t dead, despite increase in online coverage
“Print journalism is dead” is a terrible misconception often heard by journalists such as myself.
In an era where more people consume their news from the television rather than print or radio, it might seem print journalism is going the way of the dinosaurs and coming to an end. The truth of the matter, however, is that print journalism isn’t dead. In fact, it’s very much alive.
While the circulation of actual print editions of newspapers has decreased in recent years, the subscription to digital editions to papers has increased.
This increase in digital consumption is stemming from the increased use of mobile devices for news consumption. According to a Pew Research Center article entitled “12 trends shaping digital news” 50 percent of Americans now get their news online, and about 60 percent of both smartphone users and tablet users get news from their devices.
With the increase in the use of mobile devices to consume news, the industry of print journalism has taken notice and has started to adapt to the preferences of their readership. Newspapers across the country are starting to move online to keep up with their readers.
One example of this new online-oriented mindset is the Sioux Falls Argus Leader. Covering the largest city in South Dakota, the Argus Leader still maintains a daily print edition but has also created a large online presence.
Just last month the Argus Leader launched a new website, one that displays news cleanly and in a timely manner. Using a pay wall for its online edition the newspaper allows non-subcribers to browse a couple articles for free every day.
Once the article limit is reached the viewer is partially shut out from reading and is asked to pay a subscription fee. For just online news coverage, unlimited access is priced at $9 a month, which allows the paper to generate revenue from online news consumers.
Another example of the jump to online oriented newswriting is the paper you’re reading right now. After seeing that most of our readership was coming from the Internet and mobile devices, journalists at The Volante decided something needed to be done.
Over the course of three months we slowly built a new website under the direction of our Online Content Editor Megan Card, Online Design Editor Michael Geheren and Editor and Chief Emily Niebrugge.
The new Volante website is clean and easy to navigate. The best part about it? It’s accessible on all types of devices.
Just because we have a new website doesn’t mean we’ve completely forgotten about the print edition though. There will still be an actual paper every week, but now readers will be getting news updates daily on the website.
There’s going to be stories, opinion pieces like this one, videos and photo galleries.
Newspapers have seen that in order to survive in the world of social media and instataneous news they have to be online oriented. The print editions of papers are still going to be around.
The important thing to take away from the shift to online reporting at newspapers is that print journalism isn’t going away anytime soon. Print’s not dead–it’s just evolving.
