Jonece Dunigan
Marty Russel
Liba 102 section 8
March 5, 2011
Growing Pains for the journalism industry
In the beginning stages of the journalism industry, being a journalist had just as much status as being a celebrity. Their newspapers transcend time by inspiring people, promoting freedom, and reporting important information that people still examine in history classes to this day. The profession kept this glory going until the 1970s when the personal computer was created. “Newspapers circulation has been in decline for many years but the drop accelerated in 2007 and even more rapidly in the recession.” (Plambeck 1). According to The Economist, Philip Meyer, author of “The Vanishing Newspaper”, wrote that print will die in the 2043 (1). Although most critics believe the culprits are too many ads, lack of leadership in editors, and not enough hard news, the most famous is the internet.
As the computer became more popular in households, the internet has become a popular source for news. Fast internet access allows this platform to become ever changing with the time that things actually happen. This is unlike the newspaper that reports events that happened in the past. People between the ages of 15-24 have used the internet to receive their news (O’Conner 1). Google News, known for retrieving news from all round the world, is just one of the sites that are putting dome local newspapers in critical conditions (O’Conner 1). Not only does the younger generation use sources like Google or Yahoo to receive their information, but they also enjoy reading it from Social media websites, like Facebook, which are the breeding sites for citizen journalism (O’Hear 1). According to the Economist, the internet “opened the closed world of professional editors and reporters to anyone with a keyboard of an internet connection” (2). The trend of receiving internet from a mobile phone has made it convent for the young, technology savvy generation to receive information at anytime and anywhere (Greenslade 2). Professional journalist still have the upper hand, however, because bloggers are capable of bias and slander, do not operate from the frontline like journalist do, and focus on local news (O’conner 2). To fight off this phenomenon, the newspapers are using the internet as a platform to publish their content. For some newspapers this is causing more harm than good.
The newspapers are using innovative ideas to use their newspapers over the past decade (Greenslade 2). They are creating websites to display their content and switched formats. Due to print not uploading a pay page while doing this renovating, a customer can view their content without paying for it. This adds to the loss of money from “costly promotional gimmicks, from giving away CDs and DVDs to selling off cheap copies to airlines and hotels” (Greenslade2). According to The Guardian, from November 2000 to 2009 10 famous national titles such as The New York Times and The Sun has shown a 19.7% of decline from newspaper circulations since the changes occurred (2).
Although the numbers leave a negative vibe to the journalism name, many critics still have hope for the industry. According to the Economist, print has survived many things such as the huge decline during the television age or the arrival of the computer (3). Efforts are now in place to make a cyber enemy into a best friend. A site called Newsassignment.net will soon be in place to combine the work of both Professional and amateur journalist into interesting investigative stories (O’conner 2). Newspapers are also making sure they are informing their consumers about breaking news more frequently when using their websites (O’Hare 3). These changes encourage the theory that there should be no reason that the journalism name will not regain its glory. Once the owners of print require a more sophisticated grip on internet tools, journalist will no longer be called a dying breed, but a flourishing one.
Words without borders
United States’ citizens are blessed with many promises due to the Constitution. One of the most important laws is the First Amendment’s protection of freedom of speech. This amendment, however, has created controversies about what can and cannot be said. Many nations have invented strict censorship laws against freedom of speech due to the fear of controversy. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, “Reporters without Borders ranked China 171 out of 178 countries in its 2010 worldwide index of press freedom.” (Bennet 2). The Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department (CPD) and Xinhua has the responsibility of giving out weekly censoring guidelines to editors, censoring delicate topics, killing controversial stories, and banning material that publicizes CPD or “states secrets” which are considered confidential (Bennet 2). Jailing journalist who do not abide by the restrictions, shutting down certain websites such as Yahoo or Google during periods of controversy, and banning certain iPod apps are results of the Chinese government’s phobia of free speech crumbling the regime (Bennet 1). Although the strict restrictions are still prominent, the advancement of technology and commercialization due to a booming economy is forcing the CPD to become more lenient. This period is currently called “The Information Revolution.”
According to the University of California in LA , The Information Revolution started during the Cultural Revolutionary decade (1966-1976) when philosopher Yu Luoke wrote essays about equality (Gunde 1). During this time, many banned materials were circulated underground throughout China or “published in novel ways” (Gunde 1). This started two different platforms of information: one the consumer wanted and the other controlled by the government (Gunde 2). Today, the words “made in China” are very popular in common items used around the world. It is these words that make China one of the “major players in global economy” (Bennet 1). When some media started to fund themselves, the issue of money revealed itself to the CPD (Gunde 2). According to The World Today, heavily supervised papers were not being picked up to read while an increased amount of ad revenues were replacing state funding for tabloids and specialist magazines that “are testing the perimeters with every issue.” (O’Byrne 2). As the economy of China grows, it has become more about the consumer instead of the wants of the government (Gunde 2). Sources of global influences, such as global media firms, also challenge the regulations from CDP (Gunde 3). One of them is the Internet.
There are 420 million Internet users in China (Bennet 3). According to Bennet, editors and journalists work around censors (3). Blogosphere is a site that allows freedom of speech by allowing users to phonetically use Chinese characters to avoid blocks by CPD (Bennet 3). These bloggers criticize the government by using satire. Other ways to promote free speech is the buying and selling of ISBNs which are barcode numbers used to identify books and reporters sending forbidden news in one area to others in another area (Bennet 3). Social media sites are also creating political forces without any regard to restrictions (Bennet 3). The methods has trickled a westernized belief for free speech and created an urge within the population to revolutionize in order to receive that right, making it one of the 10 problems of media according to the Ministry or Propaganda (Gunde 4).
The Information Revolution has led to many successes in the past years. According to Gunde, 2, 000 newspapers, over 8,000 magazines, and 374 television stations have been in place in the Chinese economy. In August 2009, web users stopped software that would block certain websites from new computers (Bennet3) and retired Communist Party officials published a letter called “Calling for press freedom” (Bennet 4). Also, the most prestigious universities are teaching journalism students the westernized way instead of the censored way (O’Byrne 2). These efforts have decreased use of censorship and allowed more citizens to speak instead of sitting in silence.
The Future of Print in Europe
When the recession hit it hardest during the earlier part of the century, the United States had a tendency to make the country seem like the only one who became suffered the effects. A lack of financial distribution does not only change the economics of one country, but of other countries also (Rosenstiel 1). From the newspaper industry point of view, staff was cut, number of readers started to shrink, and some newspapers went out of business. According to Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, this resulted in a 10.6 percent circulation drop in newspaper circulation by the year 2009 (1). In Europe, however, circulation the situation was not as dire as the one in the United States with a circulation drop of only 5.6 percent (Rosential). Along with these positive numbers, Europeans whole view of the Internet is not so negative either. In fact, “there are several European countries, particularly in Scandinavia, where high levels of Internet use continue to coexist with high levels of newspaper readership” (Rosenstiel 2). Although the recession and the works of the Internet makes Europe suffer just as much as the United States, there are certain factors that allow European newspapers to become more stable than U.S.’ newspapers.
The income that funds the newspapers in Europe are a little different from the
United States. American print relies on the amount of subscriptions they have and heavily reliant on advertising so much, that the “collapse of particular advertising sectors have affected them more” (Rosenstiel 2). In Europe, newspapers are not depending on more advertisement to get them through (Rosenstiel 2). Even in 2009, when advertisement switched to the Internet and television, the reliance was still scarce. An example is Norway’s newspapers Verdens Gang, or VG Nett for the one published on the Internet, whose online ad revenue is a little over a third of their total income (Levine 1). That is due to both private money and the government being European newspapers’ main source of revenue (Rosenstiel 2). The government sees European newspaper as big businesses and provides them with subsidizes to keep them afloat. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism,
“Ireland has devoted hundreds of thousands of Euros per year to subsidize Gaelic-language press. Austria has pumped million to reduce distribution costs and to train journalists. Belarus spent $90 million on state media, but nothing on independent press. France has thrown a life raft to its newspaper industry lately, following up on advice that it work with its printers union to cut costs, and has discussed tax breaks for media innovations.” (Rosenstiel 2)
As a backup system for money, many European newspapers are privately owned, using the earnings as cushioning for the tough times which in turn prevents them from attaining a high amount of debt (Rosenstiel 2). This is slowly becoming a more frequent method of funding due to the controversy surrounding government subsidy (Rosenstiel 3). Some newspapers believed the amount of aid was going more towards big metropolitan newspapers than the small town ones who need the money more (Rosenstiel 3). Some newspaper systems, like the one in Sweden, were criticized so much that the European Commission, the company that monitors the competition, to shrink its amount of aid substantially in the year 2009 (Rosenstiel 3). The negative effect provided more good than harm, however, since it “allowed for a more competitive marketplace for ideas” (Rosenstiel 3)
Time illustrates the print landscape in Europe as “a bloody battleground of national dailies, all clawing at one another” (Levine 1) which is unlike the one newspaper towns that scatter America. Because of this, European publishers focus greatly on design of both the paper and their business models. According to Time, Han Nijenhuis, the editor of the newspaper NRC Next, stated, “"Newspapers are so conservative, and now they're panicking, saying they've got to cut quality, cut costs. We say that's exactly what you don't do” (Levine 1). This business model is popular in Europe and has led to many innovative ideas. An example is the special edition of Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heur published in March 2010. According to New Delhi Television (NDTV) , La Dernier Heur gave all their pictures and advertisements the 3D effect when seen through special cardboard glasses given out for free with every issue (Presse 1). The newspaper did a print run of 155,000 copies of this special, which is more than what is normally circulated and became of big popularity for their subscribers and filmgoers (Presse 1). Although it is in high demand, the editor of La Dernier Heur, Hubert Leclerc, states that the two months time it took to create the product, purchasing of glasses, and the cost of creating such a paper prevents them from doing it frequently (Presse 1), however, their actions show how innovative thinking is used as defense against challenges such as 3D television and video games. From a business model standpoint, VG Nett is set out to catch the eyes of the young generation. This has led them to hiring younger, inexperienced employees and also receives 5 percent of its news from the local newspaper (Levine 2). When The Guardian realized the switch from print to Internet, they decided to adjust to the fast-paced ways of the changing crowd and move their headquarters to King’s Cross area in London which was complete with video studios and other hardware (Levine 2). With a constant connection with their website and reorganization of the papers editors, photographers, and reporters who were designed to handle different platforms of media, The Guardian was allowed to compete with big global titles such as CNN and British Broadcasting Corporation (Levine 2). These changes allowed Guardian.co.uk 29 million viewers monthly (Levine 2) for not only their multi-media platforms, but also for their content.
When it comes to the demographics of their viewers, The Guardian is the least local newspaper with just a third of their viewers from the U.K. and seven million of them are from the U.S. (Levine 3). According to Journalism.co.uk, one of the reasons why is because big titles such as BBC News Online and The Guardian Unlimited provide “unbiased reporting and different points of view” (Croad 1). During the start of the Iraqi war, many of the readers “exercised their right to information on a global scale” (Croad 2) online by searching for information that was not morphed to fit the political spectrum of their community (Croad 1). The editor of The Guardian Unlimited stated that Americans appreciate how their newspaper allows them to state their views on worldwide situations (Croad 2). Another reason that readers enjoy their content is that their newspapers realize that “Newspaper readers are heading into the cemetery, while non-newspaper readers are just getting out of college.” (Levine 1). According to Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, European newspapers use this fact to their advantage and create content that is more tabloid style and less in-depth (Rosenstiel 4). NRC Next, a product of the newspaper Handelsblad, and VG Nett provides content of the world’s most appealing stories and a staff of young journalist writes the content (Levine 1). According to Time, the editor of VG Nett swarms his stories with writers so the site will receive constant updates about the subject (Levine 2). A technique that is considered very unique and dangerous to the role of the journalist in the view of American print, is the use of citizen journalism. The 2004 tsunami in Asia showed that the best videos and photos come from the people who actually go through devastation (Levine 1). The result of this realization was a landline that is dedicated to transferring photos from cell phones (Levine 2). VG Nett’s editor quotes, "Most newspapers view the Internet as a new distribution outlet. VG looks at it as a new way of reading" (Levine 2).
Critics of the European newspapers argue that in a couple of years the content will be just as a doom and gloom situation as the United States papers (Rosenstiel 1). Editors understanding of the transition between print and screen made it easier for their products to conform to those changes. Unique techniques from renovated business models to eye catching design keep the public interested in their content, thus providing more revenue to keep them afloat. Writing more about topics that appeal the young generation expands the audience which also leads to more revenue. According to Time, many European readers who do view online articles from the United States are surprised to see that the content is not updated as much (Levine 3). Due to this lack of consistency, there is not enough conversation between the people and the product to keep the site alive. Based on the numbers from the success of these techniques thus far, the only thing that American newspapers have to do to keep print alive is to rejuvenate their model the business print and utilize the Internet as a tool to enhance the communication between the product and the people.
