The future of newspapers 3
1 How often do you buy a newspaper? How often do you read a newspaper? What about your family and your friends? The chances are quite high that most people you know never buy a paper and get all their news from the internet. Newspaper circulation began decreasing slowly in the 1950s and 1960s – the growing popularity of television was responsible for that. But the decrease began to gather speed in the 1990s, and even more so in recent years, with a recent survey showing that the number of adults in the UK that buy a national newspaper every day has dropped from 42% to 35% in the past three years.
2 'So what?' you might say. 'Why should I buy a newspaper? Why should I pay for something I can get free anyway?' And that's the problem. You can access all the news you need at no cost on the internet. And it's so much more convenient. There's no waste – no piles of old newspapers lying around the house. If you do need to look up an old article, an internet search will find it in seconds. What's more, the news on the internet is almost always up-to-date. Today's newspaper has yesterday's news; today's online newsfeed has today's news.
3 But would it actually be such a bad thing if the newspaper industry did die out? Would it make much difference to our lives? Well, some say it would. American playwright Arthur Miller said in 1961, 'A good newspaper, I suppose, is like a nation talking to itself.' It is a conversation perhaps about where a country is, where it is going, what its values are. Ten years after Miller made his comment, the Washington Post published a series of articles that ended Richard Nixon's term as president of the United States. Good newspapers keep governments honest; they keep companies honest; they keep readers informed about the important issues of the day.
4 But how can newspapers continue to survive if everyone stops buying their paper edition? In the past, advertising has kept the money coming in. However, this source of income has quickly started to dry up as people take their business to other internet sites. Some newspapers have built a paywall round their site, where you have to pay to see the content, but as many newspaper websites are still free, why would customers start to pay when they don't need to? Today's biggest challenge to the industry is financial, and newspapers which don't meet that challenge will have to close.
5 Financial issues and sorting out how to bring in enough money to pay the staff are only part of the problem. Another part of the problem is the appeal. Thinking again about who buys newspapers - what age are these people? The age group that buys more newspapers than any other is the over-65s; the age group that buys the least is the 20–35-year-olds. Why? Well, how old are the editors of newspapers, who decide what the journalists write about? Not 20–35, that's for sure. And how well do they understand the interests of 20–35-year-olds? Not very well, I imagine. Today's newspapers, paper or online, need to broaden their appeal to attract a younger readership.
6 Will newspapers last through these difficult times? Who knows? Professor Philip Meyer, of the University of North Carolina, predicts that 2043 will be the year that paper editions of newspapers will die. That could be a little optimistic. The next few years will decide which papers will survive and in what form. My guess is that the best newspapers will survive online, but that their paper versions will be dead well before Philip Meyer's prediction.
1Newspaper sales decreased more quickly between 1950 and 1960between 1990 and nowover the last three years.
2Paper editions of newspapers make it easy to look up old articlescreate wastecontain today's news.
3Newspapers can be an important way of checking on people in public lifegive people something to talk about helped Richard Nixon become president of the United States.
4The biggest problem for newspapers is they are not making enough moneytheir editors are too oldtheir readership is too old.
5The writer thinks that paper editions of newspaper will disappear after 2043in 2043before 2043.
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