For any aspiring journalist, a key to success in the field is to know how the field started. In other words, the history of journalism must be clearly understood. There are many mediums of journalism that have advanced over time. Television, radio, even advertising through music is considered journalism. Probably the most important medium of journalism ever created is the newspaper. However, as the world evolved, many changes occurred in the world of journalism as the digital era began. Newspaper industries suffered severe declination which create the topic whether the newspaper would actually "die" or not. 

This question is one of the most debatable topics for all journalists. As a journalist, it is my opinion that the newspaper industry will not die because the newspaper has been such an important form of communication for centuries. However, this question must be answered with more than the traditional "yes" or "no". What exactly causes the newspaper decline? What does newspaper decline mean? Are debaters talking about readership decline or the transfer from print to digital copies? Does newspaper industry or production revenue determine the "death" of the newspaper? There are many different views, and I am qualified to write about this issue because I have studied the history as well as taught and held an editor position of a publication for two years.

While readers will always have the local newsletters they love in their communities, the nationwide newspapers are suffering the most out of all of the news mediums. In Newspapers: Stabilizing, but Still Threatened, the authors argue that the newspaper industry is simply in a recession and not headed for a permanent declination. The authors argue that the newspaper industry has "grounds for optimism" as far as maintaining decent revenue. Larger newspaper, such as the New York Times, are starting to offer more digital pay plans. The digital pay plan is built around three elements: a payment in exchange for access, faster guaranteed access to the news, and only offering this option to readers who previously purchased print subscriptions. The digital pay plan guarantees extra revenue from print subscription along with separate single-copy prices.

The second biggest source of income for newspaper industries is through advertisement. It has been seen numerous times that print and digital advertising has saved many newspapers, small and larger. However, digital advertising has serious competition with sites such as Google and Facebook as more business prefer to put ads on larger media engines. Another problem is price point as it is harder to put a price on a digital advertising than on a printed ad. New opportunities have been found video advertisements as organizations prefer to post video content rather than simple banner visuals. The combination of print and digital advertisements provides newspapers with a firm ground in revenue. This also revokes the debate on print hard copies versus digital copies of newspapers.

This article is part of an Annual Report on American Journalism, a report sponsored by the Pew Research Center in the Journalism division. The authors of this article are Rick Edmonds, of the Poynter Institute, and Emily Guskin, Amy Mitchell and Mark Jurkowitz of the Pew Research Center. Edmonds is a media business analyst for the Poynter Institute where he has done research on media business for the last 15 years. Guskin, Mitchell, and Jurkowitz are all researchers and writers at the Pew Research Center for Journalism and Media. Guskin writes primarily on the connection of social media and news communications. Mitchell is a director of journalism research and is responsible for public accesses and technology. Jurkowitz spent years documenting the decline of newspapers until his departure from the Pew Research Center in 2014 to pursue a privately owned newspaper business. These authors have created an argument that clearly state the pros and cons of every opportunity the news industry acts on. This article is not biased because it acknowledges both sides of the argument that the newspaper industry is declining but not going to permanently diminish.

Ryan Chittum, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, made the argument that newspaper print advertising would fall to the lowest level on record in 2014 as ads continue to move toward the Web. Chittum also agrees that the industry's "brightest spot" is through subscriptions and newsstand sales even prior to the digital-subscription packages (digital pay plans). Chittum argues that the newspaper industry has not peaked at all since its declination during World War II with the rise of television. He also says that more people than ever read newspapers online now than they ever did in print. The movement to online viewing has caused newspapers to lost profit in their print mediums, which has caused newspapers to focus on core readers rather than large audience. It is proven that a reader will read one article online that appeals to them versus purchasing an entire newspaper with other irrelevant news. To account for the loss in reader revenue, newspapers have had to raise their ad rates to accommodate inflation of the economy, which in return leads to less business willing to purchase ads in-printed papers. This is why, Chittum says, that the newspaper industry is forever in declination.

Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and former deputy editor of The Audit, the Columbia Journalism Review business section. He is currently a reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. His argument in this article has a biased tone, however, he does provide sufficient evidence behind his point. He compares the effects of a reader online versus a reader of printed copies of newspapers and how the transition to online mediums is the cause of newspaper profits decreasing. His emphasis on these points make his argument seem biased and heavily opinionated.

Author Philip Meyer takes a unique approach to the declination argument in his book, The Vanishing Newspaper. He does not argue whether or not advertising or lack of readership is the cause of the problem. He focuses on how the industry will continue to be prosperous because the people of our nation need to be informed. Newspapers are not just a business, but a "social service" with the mission to inform the public. The lack of newspapers in households does not affect the newspaper industry's revenue, but only creates problems for society. Meyer explains that knowledge is powerful and is an important factor for democracy to work among people. According to him, a newspaper has two influences: a societal influence which is the benefit of society and a commercial influence, the profit for the company producing it. A newspaper with a strong societal influence will have readers who trust it, which will make the newspaper more valuable to advertisers. This increases profits. Meyer's main argument is that newspapers should not focus on profits but rather focus on the readers and how to appeal to them, and in return, the companies shall earn profits.

Philip Meyer has been a journalist since 1981 and is the former holder of the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He researches in the areas of journalism quality, precision, civic polling, the newspaper industry, and communications technology. He has written a total of six books on journalism studies he has conducted. His arguments in The Vanishing Newspaper reflect his opinions, however, his uses significant dating back to the early colonial times of the importance of communication. He uses this evidence to emphasize that the issue lies not in profits, but in getting knowledge and awareness to readers, locally or nationwide.

Is the newspaper dying? There are countless views on the issue including effects of declination, determining if competition is a factor, or if the issue lies in profits or readership. There is also the question of what exactly is dying. Is it specific newspapers or the entire industry? Many arguers can agree that the main factors of newspaper declination revolve around technology and the transfer to online mediums. Advertising digitally is worth more than a single print ad in one copy of a newspaper. Online access allows people to read articles at any place or time. So this makes the hard, print copies the source of the issue. However, the rivalry between television and newspapers has been active prior to World War II.Some private companies are actually thriving. Reporters have started to write articles focusing topics that readers find more appealing. This increases readership tremendously. In this model, the newspaper industry does not lose money at all, rather it takes the profits from digital pay plans and single-copy purchases and continues to grow. 

