Can The Newspaper Industry Survive?

Found on Footnote.com
Since the inception of the internet and free news, the historic version of newspaper reading and subscription has been spiraling downward. Can you blame the consumer for taking advantage of the digital age and the opportunity to get up to the hour and sometimes minute of world news stories? Large newspapers have slogged on down the road. They have tried to consolidate and to thin down in order to survive but it hasn’t helped. What is the destiny of the written page? It all depends on whether the modern day newspaper embraces the internet and becomes innovative in its door to door news approach, or continues to believe that it will win the battle by plodding on.

























There are a number of ways that the newspaper industry can survive. However, many of the current executives have either given up or they are adhering to archaic notions. The first thing that they need to do is to embrace and make their #1 priority the digital direction of their paper. They need to restructure what they print and possibly scale down or be prepared to scale down their distribution both in outlying areas and days delivered. Embracing the notion of free classified like Craig’s List and other internet concepts will be important in the written work. Focusing more on the local news and happenings as well as thinning down unnecessary columns by pointing the reader to either their internet site or others, is cost saving and savvy. There are so many things that can be done to curb this trend and to revive an industry that is said to be on the way out, just like the telegraph.

One of the things that Footnote.com is currently accomplishing is to take the historic us newspaper archives, digitize and index them for posterity. This is a great way to preserve our history. Newspapers are a daily journal of the world and the local areas they represent. Footnote has partnered with Gannett in doing just that. Not only are Footnote and Gannett partnered in this project, but Gannett is also looking toward the future, with Footnote, by creating sites for remembering the past through historic newspaper headlines. Allowing readers to contribute to the newspaper is a great way to increase circulation. That is being done on this site as well. Along with blogging and all of the other social networking programs on the internet, our local papers need to utilize this venue in the written page as well.

Bringing out historic us news for study will only strengthen the companies that are doing this by name recognition with their public offerings. If they then capitalize on change as far as their current philosophy and future newspaper distribution model is concerned they will not lose.

Some of the historic newspapers that Footnote is now featuring include the Poughkeepsie Journal and Florida Today. Through Allen County Archives Footnote.com is also partnered in periodic publications of the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution and Chicago Tribune. Connecting the past to the present is another avenue that the digital age has brought to modern day newspaper subscription and distribution. With this being the information era our modern day newspapers should be able to adapt and thrive. Hopefully this will be the case and newspapers will survive!