That the sales of paper magazines begin to disappear is not surprising given that technology is constantly evolving. It can be a disadvantage to the newspapers to charge for their articles when they once were free and their competitors offer free reading on their webpages. Then it is especially important to offer the right news and to many different audiences. It is also scary that a newspaper can bring in more revenue from readers than advertisers. This shows that advertisers choose to market themselves through pages that are attractive. That they choose forum like Facebook, Google and various blogs are pretty obvious, given that those pages are those that millions of people visit every day.
The newspapers that choose to charge for their articles must carefully choose which items they are going to charge for because readers are not willing to pay for any item. Today it is easier to access news through social media, but also by watching the news on television.
Perhaps we have come to the trend that newspapers start to disappear and news shown through internet and television is the new source of information.
Hi Anja,
SvaraRaderait has been interesting to take part of your thoughts on the subject! I agree with you on several notes. It is not surprising at all that the newspaper in its original form is on its way to disappear. But perhaps there are some positive aspects to the situation. This might be a step towards a more eco friendly newspaper industry. I’m curious to know more of what you would point out as scary when it comes to the revenues being based on the readers instead of the papers advertisers?
Just like you have pointed, I too think that, it is important for the newspapers to choose carefully when deciding what articles to charge for. Making the right choice in this matter might determine who will make it in the future and who won’t.
Hi Anja,
SvaraRaderaQuite an interesting read, and I agree on several points with you. The question is whether or not choosing to offer some articles for free while charging for others is a good idea. Presently, there are a couple of magazines that offer both free and charged content (e.g. Expressen.se, Aftonbladet.se). What is obvious with such magazines is that they are still dependent on revenue accrued from advertisement. As such there is still an insecurity in terms of potential revenue. Instead I would like to discuss with you what you would think of charging for all the content on the magazine. Would that be a good idea or a bad one? And why?
Another question is what would happen to the nature and quality of the news if magazines start to disappear as you point to in the reflection? Would there be democratic consequences that might affect our view of the world and society? Perhaps there would also be a lot more information out there from non-reliable sources. I think it would be interesting to discuss this.