Newspapers were not killed simply by the internet beating print
The obvious story says digital news defeated paper. The fuller picture is messier: most papers now publish online anyway, and anyone can subscribe digitally. What really drained them was money, as classified ads fled to sites like Craigslist and eBay and advertising spread thinly across countless new outlets.
Newspapers began in the seventeenth century as information sheets for merchants. By the early 1800s many cities across Europe and the Americas had one. The most independent, high-quality and widely read titles came to be known as newspapers of record. Most are businesses funded by subscriptions, newsstand sales and advertising, though some are run or financed by governments and depend less on profit.
Scholars define the form by a handful of traits. It is publicly accessible, sold at newsstands, shops and libraries and, since the 1990s, online. It appears at regular intervals, usually daily or weekly. It is as current as printing and delivery allow, which is why big cities once had morning and later editions to catch breaking stories. And it is universal in scope, running from politics and business to science, arts and entertainment.
The traditional layout reflects those aims. Sections labelled A, B, C and so on carry page numbers like A1 or B12. An editorial page presents the views of the editor or editorial board, often beside op-eds from guest writers, while columnists interpret what the news means. Unsigned pieces come from staff writers. Around the news sit weather forecasts, reviews of films and restaurants, obituaries, crosswords, sudoku, comic strips, horoscopes and advice columns. To avoid staffing bureaus worldwide, many papers also pay news agencies like Reuters or the Associated Press for ready-made copy.
The business pressures are structural. Print advertising was once lucrative but has shrunk sharply, and online ads usually sell for less than their paper equivalents. The web also lets ordinary people publish and share information themselves, eroding the old gatekeeping role. As a result many papers treat their website as the main product, keep print for a paying minority, or have stopped printing altogether.
Source: Newspaper
