Do you think newspapers will become obsolete one day?

Answer 1

Good question, but the answer is NO.

Answer 2

I agree with most of the postings. Newspapers already are becoming obsolete. But that doesn't mean people will stop reading them. Is that an oxymoron? Am I an oxymoron?

Is an online newspaper still a newspaper?

Answer 3

Newspapers have been going downhill for some time. Their subscriber base has been declining while their costs have been rising. Plus, they're simply getting out-competed by TV, radio & the web.

There are still a few good papers out there--Chicago Tribune, to name a local one for me--but even they are not as good as they used to be. Fewer sections, fewer comics, more editorializing outside of the editorial pages, more fluff pieces. Many newspapers are looking to do away with stuff like stock market listings, comics, and major syndicated columnists because these things are just getting too expensive for them. Actually, the whole process of running & putting out a paper is getting too expensive. Many newspapers now heavily rely on their online websites for revenue.

I think newspapers will be around for at least a few more decades, but most will probably go out of business by 2020, or become multimedia companies where newspapers are just one small component of their larger businesses. (Chicago Tribune is already going this route.) It's kind of hard to imagine the really big papers like NY Times, Wall St. Journal, & USA Today going out of print, but I could easily see a lot of smaller papers going away. And I think their time is sooner rather than later.

Answer 4

I think it's a definite possibility, especially since so many newspapers are now online. But I think that more newspapers will start charging for their content, in order to make up for the lost revenue from people not buying the "hard copy" of the newspapers.

Answer 5

Actually newspaper subscriptions are already declining. It's so much easier to access the paper online or catch the news on tv or in your car on the radio. There will always be the people who like to read the paper and actually touch the paper and get the whole experience, but I think newspapers are on their way out.

Answer 6

They already are! Young people do not read newspapers much, if ever. The internet has become the news source of choice, even over TV--for instance, why wait for the 11 o'clock news to learn of the news story you want to hear? Just get online and you can get the whole story, complete with pictures and video. It's great!

Answer 7

the newspapers in the physical form will be obsolete shortly, newspapers in other forms, as has been mentioned already, will increase in popularity The real eventual replacement to newspapers themselves is not here yet, but will take the place of the paper version.

Answer 8

They are obsolete really. You can get the same news and more online. Online news is also more up to date than a paper printed that morning. But people are stubborn and change is slow at times so they will last for quite some time.

Answer 9

Already we are seeing the effects of the Internet on newspapers: a decline in readership (thus reduced interest from advertisers) and more competition from alternative press (and classified sites like Craigslist). And then they also have to compete with other mediums like radio and television.

Traditional press, i.e. major newspapers, will have to reinvent themselves, using the latest technological advances to their advantage. One idea was suggested in a Washington Post article entitled "The Future of Newspapers": http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/10/11/DI2005101101387.html

I think major newspapers need to work with their respective communities to form "virtual communities"...online portals to everything in the city... which would establish the newspaper's website as the MAIN website people go to when they want to find out what's going on in their city... which would increase advertising revenue. One idea I had in the past was to create a "virtual city", where one could navigate through the city using a map, and check out shops, restaurants, and other places of interest on different strips... but I see that Yahoo Maps already has something similar.

Good question, Minkus.

Answer 10

I think that as older generations die off and are replaced by younger generations that tend to prefer getting their news online or through television or radio that newspapers will die off. It will be a very slow and long process. Of course it's not guaranteed, no one can be sure but there is a high chance that years from now newspapers will no longer exist.

Answer 11

it might in US, but in the rest of the world people prefer to read newspaper,I believe that news from news paper is different, it is possible that some of them will survive , must probably the serous ones , the ones with more integrity of the truthfulness. already Internet has a considerable roll in the in formations building, unbelievable who pranged it is , specially for the countries who don't have a free news paper or the ones with half truth on the papers.