What will replace newspapers?

There’s a good opinion piece online about what will replace big city newspapers in the United States.

The writer, Jon Fine, says he’s not talking about national dailies or smaller local papers.

But city papers, he says, are losing advertising revenue at the rate of 15 percent a year.

Fine predicts the beneficiaries will be local television stations and online operators.

The obvious venues for all this displaced journalistic energy are a gazillion new independent online endeavors, be they individual blogs or bigger efforts like MinnPost.com. They will make for fascinating media ecosystems within individual cities, and some will become hits. It is much less certain whether ad dollars will follow.

Australian newspapers have not followed the US trend to the same extent, largely because they have led the way with internet news.

Classified revenue is taking a hit though, and the future for real estate ads in print looks perilous.

Regional papers will be more immune from these pressures, but not totally.

For newspapers to survive and succeed they need to be at the forefront of adapting to web-based technology.

September 28, 2008 · Topics: ,

Comments

3 Responses to “What will replace newspapers?”

  1. Bronwen on September 29th, 2008 10:44 am

    Interesting stuff, do you have a link to the original article?
    Thanks
    Bronwen

  2. Michael on September 29th, 2008 11:58 am

    Hi Bronwen, visit here.

  3. Alistair on September 29th, 2008 8:56 pm

    I still can’t see how newspapers will make enough money online to maintain the publishing apparatus.

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