Paper & Paperless

Paper & Paperless

The media world has been greatly affected by recent technological developments. Consequently, various media companies have adapted their strategies and/or approach to attract more advertisers. These strategies have also been aimed at increasing readership of the various articles published by these media companies. With the development of the web, readership styles changed among the people, especially the young population, who prefer sourcing information from the internet which is comparatively cheaper and more convenient compared to buying the printed newspapers and magazines. The media houses which have not put measures in time to catch up with the changing readership trends have found themselves in difficult positions in terms of reduced advertisers hence reduced financial returns (Kirchhoff, 2010).

A majority of the reading population has opted for more dynamic journalism for they believe print media is highly static within a given period of time. In online media, the website is updated at any time of the day with breaking news and short articles. Online media also provides quick searches or searchable services such as calendars and entertainment guides. Consider, for example, a country where presidential elections have been held and the results from different voting stations are being delivered at the main tallying centre within a given period of time before they can be analyzed and the winner declared. A given media house goes to press before final tallying since it is routine time and so as to avoid delivery delays the next morning. The readers buy the newspaper the next morning and the reports of the winner are not featured simply because the announcement was made when the newspaper had already been published. This makes the reader feel like he/she has made the wrong decision by paying for outdated or inconclusive news. Such a reader gets discouraged from buying the printed newspaper or magazine and opts for the online media where the news is posted in real time. When a large number of people abandon paying for a given printed newspaper or magazine and opt for free news and entertainment online, it results in the decline of print circulation which in turn results in reduced revenues from advertisement due to lack of confidence from the advertisers (Dugan, 2008).

The technological developments have had tremendous impacts on some of the once biggest media houses in the world. The consequential reduced advertisement revenues have resulted in some of the companies filing for bankruptcy reorganization and others being forced out of business totally, an example being The Rocky Mountain News in the United States of America. Such negative impacts have resulted in layoffs, burnouts of employees, and court rows due to unpaid wages. Some of the major media houses emerged from the bankruptcy process after being purchased by hedge funds. The demerit, however, was that some of