by Ryan Gray

Created on: April 17, 2008   Last Updated: November 13, 2009

Although it may be impossible to believe for most people, there are members of our society who either don't have access to the Internet, don't know how to use it or are not comfortable working with computers. That's why the Internet's "threat" to newspapers is not significant enough to completely eliminate the need for editors, reporters and classified advertisements.

There is no doubt the World Wide Web has made an impact on how people get their information these days. Many people, especially those in the younger generations, would rather sit down in front of a computer screen or grab a smartphone than sit on the couch and pick up a newspaper. However, there are still some ways that printed publications can benefit readers.

The Internet is used as a marketing tool by some newspaper companies. For example, websites for individual newspapers include the first few paragraphs of stories from the issue for that day/week. The story "teaser" ends with something like this: "For the complete story, check out this week's issue of The Smalltown Gazette."

The Internet can serve as a revenue source for newspapers in a couple other ways as well. The sales staff can encourage advertisers to purchase space on the website to display either an advertisement or a link to the advertiser's website. In addition, subscriptions to the website can be offered. The top stories and a couple pictures from the paper are shown online, but to get more than that, customers are asked to pay a set rate per month or year.

Newspapers that are distributed in mailboxes and on doorsteps provide keepsakes that are not available on any website. Pictures of newborn babies, complete stories dripping with memories, obituaries, and pull-out sections filled with pictures are just a few examples of the keepsakes available in publications. And if they are interested, customers can get more than one copy of the paper with the items they consider important.

If they look closely, customers will find that the pictures on most newspaper pages are much better quality than those online. Even if they try to print the online pictures on their fancy color printers at home, most newspaper snapshots will look better. In addition to that, there are likely to be more pictures available for viewing in the actual publication than online.

There is one more thing offered by newspapers that people can't get from computers: word games and other puzzles. The folks mentioned at the beginning of this page are the target here, since many of them enjoy curling up in their easy chair to work on a crossword puzzle, read the comics or play sudoku for a couple hours. Some of them do it every day.

The headline on this story is that the printed newspapers that have been around for more than a century are not about to fold. While there are mountains of information available on the Internet, the Information Superhighway does not include everything. There will always be a place on the doorstep for newspapers.

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