by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: July 28, 2010

Print journalism is dying slowly but is not quite dead. It is more that local newspapers are adapting to meet more regional and local needs, financed by local advertisers. This creates a situation where both internet and real world news sources will co-exist for a while.

The reason for this is the cheaper localized advertising that keeps the daily rag in the pink! As long as there are plenty of businesses and private sellers that can afford the advertising fees, local print journalists will be able to throw in a bit of news among the furniture store inserts, store coupons and want ads.

But the internet is clearly winning the battle for dominance when it comes to being a person's major source of national and international headlines and breaking news, while the local papers will always provide more comprehensive and in-depth regional and community information to the dedicated subscriber.

One driving force of  interenet competition with print journalism is the increased power of mobile browsers that allow people to access the news anywhere and at any time. Mobile phone apps and browsers have all of the features of home computer internet browsers, including the ability to store favorites and to access customized alerts and feeds for news from any online paper, blog, video and radio media outlet in the world.

Magazines are competing with their own online versions, offering cheap subscriptions for the real world versions. But when people want to collect and keep their favorite magazines, there is nothing that will stop them. The bottom line is that many print magazines are of a quality that makes them collectables and physical reference resources. Just as many will continue to collect print books, many will continue to collect print magazines.

For those who do not subscribe to a particular magazine, the internet and mobile internet fills the bill! A particular issue that has a major breakthrough article will draw readers to the online version for that article only. But the advertising that surrounds the article will bring plenty of revenue to support the online venture. In other words, people who would not buy the print edition might be more inclined to visit the online edition and tolerate a few high revenue ads in order to see what all the fuss is about.

One thing to consider is that a huge number of people do not even have home computers, let alone expensive smart phones. They will continue to rely upon television and print for their news and information.

Finally, an increasing sense of environmental responsibility drives people to go as paperless as possible. Everyone who has ever subscribed to a newspaper and several magazines is aware of the huge volume of paper that builds up, becoming a clutter and a nuisance. Online journalism is the most viable alternative to the use of so much paper, especially when the paper is made difficult to recycle with polymer coatings and other processes that make it harder to break down the wood pulp.

In summary, the needs of people to get more in-depth and reliable coverage of their local news, to get local advertising and to have real world magazine collections will keep print journalism alive. But the overwhelming trend will be toward online sources for a much wider variety of sources for and many more ways of accessing national, international and breaking news.

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