Newspapers and Modern Journalism

   "I would read Newspapers if..." this isn't a difficult sentence to finish. As much as we would all like to preserve Printed Newspapers, its becoming less and less practical. The arrival of the internet was no small occurrence and has literally changed the world forever. It has given us the ability to access information and people and things at a previously unfathomable speed. People from all over the world can update on an event as its happening, share articles, post visuals, from all sorts of everyday devices. This new found source of speed is one of the hugely contributing factors to the death of printed News. So my first reason I WOULD read the newspaper; if it had the ability to update as frequently as the internet. the old style of waiting until the next morning to publish "Breaking" news just isn't practical when I can hear about it on twitter or an online publication 12 hours earlier.
    The second major reason for me would be that I WOULD read the newspaper If it could support an open forum for a multitude of people to input on a story. Some people talk down on the internet claiming people use it to complain about everything and that there is nothing but mindless junk. But as in any form of media, you have to wade through the nonsense to find what your looking for. There are thousands of blogs and forums out there overflowing with intellectual people discussing matters and news-like topics, being able to read those opinions allows mw to form more educated stances of my own. I personally think its very dangerous to take your information from one source. Its very hard sometimes to see the differences between factual statements and bias opinions.
     Its hard to say with any type of certainty what a business should do to survive, let alone and entire industry. However there are some ways specific News publications have been able to succeed in these difficult times. The first being a heavy online presence. Its not enough to just have a website anymore, the online version of your newspaper needs to receive (at the bare minimum) equal attention to your print edition. As well as having some sort of free mobile app, one that sets you apart from your competitors. The key to balancing accessibility through technology, and making enough money to be successful is including enough advertising through these new formats so you can give away your products for free or close to free. The more successful companies and publications let you have access with advertisements then offer some sort of extended access (archives, exclusive interviews, etc.) free of advertising if you pay a small subscription fee.
    Another good move that many publications have taken is to try and appeal more to a niche market. Not saying one should go so far as to become a magazine, but a little of that format can go along way. So much as picking a demographic to appeal to instead of being a jack-of-all-trades would be a huge step in the right direction. You don't have to go all out and say " We are here to appeal to men between ages 18-35 who like red sports cars and craft beer"  but something along the lines of an age and possible socio-economic group: young republicans, retired people, etc. More or less taking your publication in a general direction instead of trying to appeal to everyone, because in all fairness, technology gives us the ability to be individuals and we expect our media sources to respect that.