Have Newspapers Reached Their Deadline?

Readership For Print Media Is Declining, So How Will News Coverage Change?

(CBS)  There was a time when the only way to find out what was happening was to buy a newspaper, but these days there are plenty of ways to get your news.

Lynne Taylor doesn't go any further than her couch to catch up on current events. She gets some news from radio and TV, but when she wants to read, it's all online.

"I'm checking to see what's going on in the world now and online makes me feel like I've got a real 'now' as opposed to paper 'now,' [which] is yesterday," Taylor, a Ph.D. student, told Sunday Morning correspondent Rita Braver.

In a way, Taylor is every editor's nightmare. It's in large part because of younger people like her that newspapers are in turmoil today. Papers across the country have been or may be sold, with workers laid off as well. Major advertising revenue for many papers is down, too, and classified ads are increasingly being placed on Internet sites.

In fact, newspaper circulation in the United States has been falling for two decades, from a high of 63 million in 1984 to 53 million or less today.

Editor and publisher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press Tom Griscom is fighting to keep the Tennessee paper solvent and relevant with new focus on local news. The paper is a combination of two newspapers which merged nine years ago because of declining readership.

"We've got a total of 40 reporters that cover sports, lifestyle and of course the news side," he said. "We're telling them that story about Medicare and children and what it's doing to children here, rather than the fact that President Bush sat down and made a, you know, the latest announcement."

And like most papers now, the Chattanooga Times Free Press is not just about what's in print. In fact, at the top of the paper there is an ad for the paper's Web site.

"Because that's the deal," Griscom said, "if you want to follow us throughout the day, go to the Web site 'cause we're gonna be posting breaking news."

In fact, Braver was there on a big news day; Chattanooga had just lost out on a new Toyota plant. She followed reporter Mike Pare as he headed out to cover the latest developments. He said he would file a couple of stories on the plant that day.

Those Internet stories will come in addition to the longer piece Pare will file for the next morning's paper.

Everyone at the Times Free Press is well aware of predictions that printed papers are dead or dying. Rising paper prices have led some papers, like the Wall Street Journal, to shrink (literally). In addition, although e-readers now are just for books, companies like Plastic Logic in England are developing small wireless devices, called E-paper, which will mean we won't ever have to carry real paper around to read the news. But Griscom's not ready to give in.

[noanksas]

Most of us can scrape up a few quarters for a newspaper at our local newstand. But, many (and many more each day these days!) have no credit or even bank accounts... How are we to 'pay', even the 'few pennies per story' for online news???

[vancouverboo]

I wonder where the internet will get it's news when there are no more Newspapers? The on line stories come from the news services, from the newspapers.

[Razzl]

Since not every person will ever own a computer, there will come a point of stabilization between how many people have dropped paper for online and how many can only get access to local news through paper. These trends never go in a straight trajectory--bookstores, after all, are florishing now in what should be the twilight of their era. I suspect that new economies of delivery and production could stabilize the publishing industry for a very long time to come...

[fred9812]

Too bad the report didn't talk about many newspaper owners' addiction to high profit margins, running 20 to 30 percent. Grocery stores run at about 3 percent. If newspaper owners weren't so greedy, they could hire more reporters and editors, put out a better product and maybe increase both their print and online readership, increasing their worth to advertisers. It's really good old American greed that's causing problems in many cases.

[fred9812]

Too bad the report didn't talk about many newspaper owners' addiction to high profit margins, running 20 to 30 percent. Grocery stores run at about 3 percent. If newspaper owners weren't so greedy, they could hire more reporters and editors, put out a better product and maybe increase both their print and online readership, increasing their worth to advertisers. It's really good old American greed that's causing problems in many cases.

[fred9812]

Too bad the report didn't talk about many newspaper owners' addiction to high profit margins, running 20 to 30 percent. Grocery stores run at about 3 percent. If newspaper owners weren't so greedy, they could hire more reporters and editors, put out a better product and maybe increase both their print and online readership, increasing their worth to advertisers. It's really good old American greed that's causing problems in many cases.

[caldwellptr]

"I don't feel like I'm wasting any news. I just open the articles on my laptop that I want to read. My newspaper usually comes with all of the news fit to print, not necessarily read."

[michellem99-2009]

I read the news on the computer. I like it better as no messy news ptint plus I can't hold the paper and read it while using a mag. glass to make the print bigger. I think the paper as we know it will still be here. They don't put all the stories in on computer. I know of people who don't have computer and they don't care for computer. The TV,radio and print news will still be with us. I am a blind person so I can't see the print in the papers plus I want up dates in news, the computer does that. I can read and have a cup of tea.

[cmp271]

I will always read the newspaper as well as on the net. I like the local columnists we have as well as the other features.

what if the power goes out? what about those who do not have a computer.

Newspapers and radio need to stay in business.

[neojoker]

Wait a minute, I forgot to tell you that my fee is $100,000.00 for coming up with the answer. Just contact me at my email address, on file, here. I copyright my before mentioned solution.

[neojoker]

Maybe if the newspapers and news wasn't just all copy and paste, saying the very same worded story over and over a million times, and had their own point of view about the story instead of what the White House or whoever, is feeding them....Maybe then, somebody would buy it, just to get more info about the story and see it from a different angle. It's such a simple answer. It doesn't require a think tank to figure it out.

[dave_lucas]

Excellent peice, I have written a comment / companion piece on my blog http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/03/whats-ahead-for-print-broadcast-media.html

[dave_lucas]

Excellent peice, I have written a comment / companion piece on my blog http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/03/whats-ahead-for-print-broadcast-media.html

[dave_lucas]

Excellent peice, I have written a comment / companion piece on my blog http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/03/whats-ahead-for-print-broadcast-media.html

[qmumk]

I think there are plenty of people who still want a printed newspaper. Your statistics blip at the end of the segment said it all...aren't we living longer and aren't there more baby-boomers than ever, going into those ages that you pointed out are reading the PRINTED newspaper? We want to sit down and read the printed paper each morning with our favorite beverage and, not everyone has or chooses to have a computer.