Future of Newspapers

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the conceptual model known as a “newspaper”. Readership (by young people) has fallen off the edge because it doesn’t support connections between the physical world (an instance of the newspaper) and virtual information (what we *each* want to read; ‘each’ being an operative word intended to evoke the requirement of personalized content).
Presently, there are better ways to stay informed if you happen to be a knowledge-worker (or reasonably skilled with the Internet).
Eventually digital paper will be cheaper to produce than real paper. When that happens, I suspect we’ll return to “newspapers” that will support RSS.

As a member of the 23-42 age group, I agree that smudgy newspapers are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Now we find interactive, virtual papers taking their place.
Since we live in such a fast pace environment, online newspapers are a convenient source of information. In just a few clicks, I have the news I need and I can continue my day. Plus, online publications cost significantly less!
However, I must say that I enjoy thumbing through a newspaper with a cup of coffee. There is an artistic quality of news print that can not be replaced.

A statistic for the local daily: when they moved content online, subscription base fell by 35%. To reacquire readers, subscriptions were offered at just over print cost. To me, it seems to be a bit of a no-brainer that there’s no need to pay for content that’s available for free.
When the local weekly went online, it did so with much less of its content, with the result that while clicks and hits aren’t going through the roof, they do grow steadily and the subscriber base hasn’t fallen off - period. In fact, they’ve gained readers.
Overall, though, print media is fading, and needs to reposition itself to an ‘online’ world view.

A newspaper where the focus is on local news reminds of my hometown newspaper. Where recipes are sent in, the winning team has their picture printed and town meetings are listed. While these are interesting things to read, I am more interested in reading about the recently CEO firing.
Being a college student, I admit I am cheap and choose not to spend the 50-75 cents on a newspaper, but rather read it online. I am always surrounded by a computer which makes it easy to be updated in between classes. I think online newspapers are the future.

Recently the department placed a newspaper stand in the entryway of our building at Auburn. The stand carries USA Today and the Birmingham News and they are free to all students. The only problem is unless you get there early, the papers are gone usually by lunch. I know for myself, this has helped me read print newspapers more often than just on Sundays. However, I still read electronic news everyday- especially when there is breaking news. I think electronic news will take over in the future.

Maybe if newspapers only reported local news readership of print newspapers would go up. Although with technology advancing so fast, I think that online readership will continue to increase. Online newspapers have made it convenient to receive news with just a few clicks. Our society has become so dependent on the Internet, I think readership of print newspapers will continue to decrease, unless some changes are made, such as only printing local news and targeting members of the community. This idea reminds me of my hometown newsletter that is sent out once a month. It contains current news about local schools, businesses and events.

I like the idea of newspapers only focusing on local news. It gives it a community feel and most people like to be involved with the community. I love reading about upcoming local events, wedding announcements, and local humanitarian stories. Besides all other news that appears in newspapers could be found online, and normally those stories have been sent by AP so it is the same story across the country. I like the idea, but I don’t think that it will ever happen. Some people like to get all their information from one place.

I agree with Jane. The local news is always the first thing that I read in a newspaper (depending on where I am). I know that I can receive full coverage of any nationwide news on any of the national news TV stations. I don’t know that papers should feature ONLY local news, but it is definitely harder to find online which is why I read the paper if I can.

I am an addict to online news. It’s convenient and has the latest breaking news. I didn’t start reading online newspapers until I got to college. I actually started reading online because it was part of a class that I had one semester. After I graduate, I’m sure that I will continue to read online but I do like to read an actual newspaper. I feel like you miss the passion and emotion behind feature stories when they are online.