Is the era of the printed newspaper over?
Print newspapers are having ever-declining subscription rates while online newspapers are very popular. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each:
Print Newspapers:
Advantages
- Local information e.g. local news, new zoning and construction, movies/entertainment, local sports, other events in your area, coupons and advertisements for stores having sales.
- Level of importance of each story is made more obvious by use of different sized headline fonts.
- Easy-to-find comic and puzzle section in most major print newspapers
Disadvantages
- A subscription to a printed newspaper costs money; in contrast many (but not all) online newspapers offer free access to most content
- Full text of all the content requires you to scan more carefully than online newspapers to find content of interest of you. Your eyes are your "search" button!
- Adds to the household recycling basket
- Bulky – less practical for on-the-go reading than accessing news via a smartphone
Online Newspapers
Advantages
- Personalized experience: based on the story you are reading, an online newspaper may suggest other recent stories of interest to you. It also saves you time in finding content of interest.
- Can quickly and easily source the same article from many different online newspapers allowing you to read the same item from different perspectives to decrease the possibility of bias.
- Online news can be updated more frequently than the once a day print newspapers.
- Content is usually free for basic news of the day, although some ask you to pay to continue beyond a certain number of articles
- It’s interactive – readers may participate via commenting on the article
Disadvantages
- Digital advertisements can be more intrusive or distracting than print advertisements
- Some content comes with auto-play audio or video content, and this can be unexpected and distracting to the reader and to others around him or her.
- Frequently needing to scroll up and down.
Conclusion
Online newspapers and print newspapers have very different pros and cons, but neither is mutually exclusive. Rather, one form of news may appeal over another based on a particular reader’s lifestyle. Although online news has very wide usage, we can expect to see both forms of news coexisting into the future, serving slightly different purposes.
Even though their content may be the same, online newspapers and print newspapers each may have a very different appeal based on the reader’s personality and lifestyle.
