The news media industry has come to a critical point in its quest to meet the demands of a changing technological society. While a morning newspaper with coffee remains an American ritual, a growing number of people are finding ways to receive news through other sources. The Internet, blogs, TV, radio talk shows and social networking all offer quick ways to exchange information.
Dean Phillips, communications lecturer and former TV newscaster, has seen the news media industry change throughout his time working with stations including ABC, NBC and CBS.
“Print newspapers will have to incorporate technology into their businesses to survive,” Phillips said. “There will always be newspapers in print because many people like tangible objects, but the Internet is increasingly becoming less costly, more practical and more profitable.”
Phillips said as newspapers move more towards online publication there would be more sharing of stories within the industry. “Newspapers won’t own stories and staffs will not be as large,” Phillips said. “Readers will see, and are already seeing, more international and national articles that come from outside their hometowns.”
Charles Duncan Pardo, editor of the Raleigh Public Record, an independent news source, is working to prevent the loss of city-based reporting. “The big news media corporations, such as CNN and the New York Times, will always be there,” Duncan said. “What will suffer as news media changes is coverage of city government and the day-to-day lives of people.”
The Raleigh Public Record is a completely online publication that started less than a year ago. “Most of our staff have day jobs apart from our business,” Duncan said. “We sell ads but we don’t make much money at all right now. The continuation of our publication will depend entirely on the support of the community and the desire of the people of Raleigh to have coverage of the workings of their city.”
While the Internet takeover has not been favorable to print and TV media, it has brought positive change for the advertising industry, according to Mitzi Montoya, professor of marketing and innovation management. “Newspapers limit the ability of advertising companies to track the amount of readers actually looking at their ads,” Montoya said. “But on the Internet, companies have a record of what pages viewers have looked at and can even link their Web site to an ad on the newspaper Web site.”
Montoya said that the key for news media to move forward economically is to focus on an “integrated digital strategy.”
“The news industry has almost been bypassed by people that have taken advantage of technology faster than they have, such as bloggers and social networking sites,” Montoya said. “In the future print news will have to look into value-added services online and focus on multiple channels of reporting.”
Montoya also added that the technological changes of the past century have been a result of entrepreneurship and innovation that will also change the work of reporters. “I believe we will see an increase in free-lance, outcome-oriented journalists,” Montoya said.
Students on campus also prefer multiple options for news and information. Although often deemed a technological generation, many students, such as Hannah Hedgecock, senior in elementary education, prefer to read news in print.
“I usually read the newspaper when I don’t have a computer with me, such as on the way to class,” Hedgecock said. Likewise, Stephanie Renn, freshman in food science, reads the paper in print because “the computer screen gives me a headache.” But Alan Bohn, freshman in microbiology, likes online media because he can “search for specific topics” and doesn’t have to worry about throwing away the paper.
John Drescher, executive editor of the Raleigh News and Observer, is optimistic about the future of his business and the news industry as a whole. The N&O has had to let people go and make pay cuts for the entire staff, but Drescher says the business is moving in the right direction.
“We are in a transition period,” Drescher said. “Most of our revenue still comes from print, but each month we are setting records for our Web-viewing. The demand for news is actually greater than ever before; we just have to find new ways to meet that need.”
