The majority of Americans have heard of the Paul Revere's story. He rode on his horse in the night, screaming to everyone, "The British are coming!" Paul Revere is a hero of the colonies and a prominent figure in American history because of his bravery in warning the citizens that British soldier were coming to invade the colonies.. However, some people do not know that Revere did not actually scream at all. He rode from house to house, throwing small newsletters to citizens, one of the first newspapers of the original thirteen colonies. Newspapers have been the primary source of information and communication for centuries. When the digital era emerged, newspaper production started to decline at fast rates. If newspaper declination rates continue to increase, America will lost both a form of communication as well as a part of our culture.

Newspapers were the first news medium ever created, dating back prior to the founding of the New World in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. As the world evolved, many changes occurred in the world of journalism as technology increased and the digital era began. Newspaper industries suffered severe declination which created the idea whether the newspaper would actually "die" or not. This idea is one of the most debatable topics for all journalists. As a journalist myself, it is my opinion that the newspaper industry will not die because the newspaper has been such an important form of communication for centuries. What exactly causes the newspaper decline? The main causes discussed are: readership declination, transfer to online mediums, competition in advertising, amateur bloggers replacing certified journalists, and business innovation. All of these causes can lead to a newspaper "dying," however, it is the effect of all of these causes combined that can make a newspaper perish completely.

Since the newspaper medium has been used for centuries, it is considered one of the oldest forms of news communication. In today's society, it is much easier to browse a news app or website rather than pick up a newspaper at a newsstand. Many, if not all, newspapers have transferred to online mediums to stay relevant in the digital era. The New York Times entered the digital age in 1996 with hopes of cutting costs on printing, labor, and delivery. (Kennedy). Many other newspapers have taken this route and continue to produce copies. However, instead of saving money, the companies are losing money as the profits from digital revenue are not enough to accommodate for the lack of revenue in printed advertising. (Barthel). This occurs because a majority of the profit a newspaper company makes come from advertising. As newspapers move to online websites, they will lose a market share of advertising revenue because advertisers will no longer have to pay heavy fees for one print ad in one issue of a paper. (Blodget). Individual companies suffer large losses in terms of business. Money is a major loss, but companies also lose readership and even employees. Lower revenue causes labor problems as journalists and reporters are paid less than other competing companies, prompting them to either resign or be terminated. Readerships levels go down as they lose interest in the articles written in the papers. This creates larger opportunities for blogs to become popular and serious competition for newspapers to grow. Blogs allow amateur writers to advance into the journalism world and enhance their personal credibility because blogs tend to focus on one particular topic. This pulls certain groups of readers away from reading newspapers and newsletters. (Skube). All of the problems newspaper industries face can be easily connected to one another. Despite the issues, however, the newspaper industry will not end permanently. 

Newspapers are not only a part of history, but serve a greater purpose as a way to connect and inform people about the world they live in. An 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 (Meyer 10). 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 and it is newspapers that have provided that knowledge for centuries. Tess Saperstein, a writer for Harvard Politics, states that news industry has had rough years as far as readership. Print readership declines, newspapers are closing, and journalists will start being laid off. Saperstein argues that that newspaper industry does not know how to respond to the challenges their industry faces today. The industry is in a state of serious decline, however there are solutions to these problems that newspapers industries face.

Contrary to the online publication versus print copy debate, online mediums are actually good for newspapers. Newspaper companies can greatly benefit from the Internet if they use their resources carefully. According to Philip Meyer, 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 (Meyer 10). A newspaper with a strong societal influence will have readers who trust it, which will make the newspaper more valuable to advertisers. Newspapers should take advantage of the opportunities that the Internet has created for news delivery and business innovation. Newspaper companies can increase revenue by focusing on the interests of the readers. The more the writers report on content of the readers' preferences, the more the readers will purchase or view the paper. This also increases the amount of times a new reader sees an advertisement. As more readers see ads, the ad accumulates more worth for the business and in turn attracts other advertisers who want to increase profits as well (Barrett and Siegel).

This revenue revival can not happen without appealing to the readers. Ryan Chittum  agrees that the newspaper industry's "brightest spot" is through subscriptions and newsstand sales even prior to the digital-subscription packages (digital pay plans). 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 lose profit in their print mediums, which has caused newspapers to focus on core readers rather than large audience. (Chittum). Jill Abramson, adds that people don't just crave information. "They seek judgment from someone they can trust, who can ferret out information, dig behind it, and make sense of it. They want analytic depth, skepticism, context, and a presentation that honors their intelligence. They want stories that are elegantly told and compelling, with quality pictures and videos. And they want to be part of the conversation," (Abramson). This is another reason why blogs are popular; they appeal to certain groups of people such as those interested in fashion or culinary arts. 

An issue arises for newspaper companies: how can the newspapers appeal to readers without threatening anymore revenue loss? Jason Klein, an American media executive, claims that newspaper companies can keep both their readers and advertisers happy while still maintaining a profitable revenue in two ways. One, newspapers should take appeal to advertisers in both print and digital ads Two, they should charge their readers one set price of unlimited access across all newspaper formats, print and digital. (Klein). Larger newspapers, such as the New York Times, are starting to offer more digital pay plans as previously mentioned. 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 (Edmonds et al.) This guarantees a profit whether or not the reader enjoys the content. More revenue also increases wages for journalists and keep them in work versus losing them to competing businesses.

Some journalists believe that newspapers have reached their last editions. Dan Kennedy makes the assumption that the newspaper is in a serious declination and that the "digitizing" of newspapers is making it worse. He says, "The newspaper industry is a shell of its former self." Some newspaper companies have willingly transferred to digital medium in order to cut costs for newsprint, delivery and labor over the last 20 years. However, fast forward to 2016, the newspaper declination rate has not steadied as some journalists expected rather it has dropped in terms of revenue. Over time even the digital revenue decreased as newspapers could not compete with other websites who offered free advertisements spots. Both advertising and print circulation is plummeting and the newspaper industry is dying altogether. He says that there is theoretically no way that newspapers can revive themselves from this recession and that eventually because of the consumer's demand for faster access to news, print newspapers completely "die out." He also argues that transferring to online mediums hurts paper industries because companies lose revenue off of free access on their websites. Henry Blodget, a Wall Street analyst, makes an argument that newspaper no longer present a viable business model. He asks, " Do you know why [newspapers are] screwed? It's actually not the cost of paper, ink, trucks, printing plants, and other physical distribution expenses. Rather, it's the cost of content creation ...  Newspaper content generates way more revenue in the physical world than it does online, because offline it can be packaged with classifieds and display ads and actually sold. In the online world, meanwhile, it has to be given away, and because classified ads are now run by classified sites and newspaper sites are only one of dozens of places where people get news, the advertising opportunity is comparatively tiny," (Blodget). Blodget set up a scenario to explain the losses. He included the makeshift company to cut raw materials costs to zero, cut distribution costs to zero, reduce wages and salaries and sales/administrative costs to zero. He concluded that revenue drops by more than fifty percent, half of the employees of the company get fired, and the company still loses money. Based on the information provided by the numerous other authors and journalists mentioned in this argument, that is not true. Obviously, a company can not make a profit if it does not put out money to begin with; that is the flaw in Blodget's scenario. Newspaper companies, personally owned or corporate businesses can revive their papers. The digital era has not hurt the newspaper industry, rather it has given these companies an opportunity to improve their businesses and products. 

The newspaper industry is in a state of serious decline.The problems they face has caused business to lose revenue and readers of their papers as competition between bloggers and advertising increases. All of these causes can lead to newspapers "dying,"; it is the effect of all of these causes combined that can make a newspaper perish completely, but there are ways for newspapers to solve their problems. They need to appeal to certain reader groups in the same way that bloggers do to increase readership and keep their journalists in work. They need to take advantage of the online mediums to increase visual content like television and radio websites. They need to renovate their business and marketing strategies to appeal to advertisers and readers to increase profit levels while creating popularity for their paper. Newspaper companies need to do all of these tasks if they want their newspapers to succeed. Newspapers serve as the source of communication for people to know about the events happening in their local areas and around the world. It is important for people to be aware of certain dangers or beneficial acts in their communities. Newspapers have been the basis of communication for hundreds of years. By following these numerous strategies, they will continue to be so in years to come.


