Print Media vs. Online Media
Breakfast. The best time of the day. There is nothing better than having a nice full english breakfast with a cup of fresh brewed coffee, a glass of fruity orange Juice and- a mobile phone? Hold on, something is wrong. Ah, yeah right. Where is the good old-fashioned newspaper?
Statistics present the decline of daily newspapers. The german newspapers for instance declined from 27.3 million prints in 1991 to 15.3 million in 2016.
But why do people read less printnews? Are people no longer interested in what is going on in the world? Are people no longer interested in politics, culture, economies or any other sort of news?
The answer is no.
Since the first iPhone was brought to the market in 2007 and soon many other smart phones followed, the new technology might not have caused the decline of print media, but it has at least not impeded it.
Au contraire- since systems as IOS or Android provided new applications for the eager-for-knowledge, curious and always-wanna-be-up-to-dates, those could not put their latest mobile phones aside.
From now on everybody needed to know more than ever all that was going on in the world. Facebook and WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagramm became the most important and dearest companions. People watch and share Videos about the latest tragic tsunami at the other side of the world, people have to hear the latest concert of the famous singer live on Youtube, people need to read all about the war in a country far away…
The list goes on and on, and this is not because of the news. News will always be there, but the important thing is that people now are more than ever interested in not missing anything. The people have changed. When twenty years ago we had to wait for the news until the next day, today we can catch the latest news in less than 5 seconds.
Daily newspapers can no longer compete with modern thechnology. Reading a newspaper is not as easy as having a smart phone with you, that provides you the latest information that you want! In comparison to newspapers, the smart phone and its applications enable you to find the information you need immediatelly. Facebook for instance saves the topics you are interested in and provides you further readings. You can also switch between online newspapers and read as many as you want, without carrying hundreds of papers with you.
As sad as it is, it seems to me that I need to put away my newspaper now and get one of those phones, too.
