Bad News, News

 This week I'd like to discuss the news and how it is consumed in today's world.  I want you to think back to the last time you read the news on good ole fashioned paper.  For most of us that it has been a long time and for some of you all it may have been never.  Are newspapers dying? What are publishers doing to keep the younger generation interested in reading the news?  What tools are there to help companies get more readers on a weekly basis?  Hopefully we can answer a few of these questions. 

Are newspapers dying?  The answer yes and no.  The medium of which people are reading the news is changing.  A study done in 2020 by Pew Research Center here, shows that the majority of the news is being read digitally with 86% of the adults claiming they primarily receive their daily dose of info online.  Conversely only 10% of the adults said that they often read the newspaper.  To make things worse for newspapers only 5% of the people claimed that they preferred to get the news via paper. 

This makes sense if you take into account that the asset-light generation, Millennials and Gen Xers grew up with a screen in their hand.  Publishers can only solve this issue by putting the newspaper digitally in the hands of their readers.  In Newsosaur's blog here it mentions "One of the reasons Digital Natives don’t read newspapers is that they travel light: favoring renting over owning, flexibility over commitment and convenience over cost."  This asset-light generation does not have the time to go get, sit down, and read the newspaper.  However, they can afford to spend a smaller chunk of time glossing over a few articles on their phone.

A tool publishers could use is Dr. Rogers Diffusion on Innovations theory, and his Innovation Adoption Curve.  In this Adoption Curve Dr. Rogers breaks out consumers into five groups with percentages of the population: Innovators (2.5%), Early Adopters (13.5%), Early Majority (34%), Late Majority (34%), and Laggards (16%).  I'd like to focus on the Early Majority, because I think that is where the news industry is currently and where we can expect the largest growth in consumers.  Les Robinson talks about what the Early Majority are looking for in a product in his article here, "They are looking for simple, proven, better ways of doing what they already do."  When I read that the word efficiency comes to mind.  All we are looking for is a faster easier way to get the news and unfortunately, newspapers are lagging behind.

In conclusion, I think newspapers are going extinct, but I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing.  We will always be able to receive the news it may just come through a different medium and that is okay.  Moving forward, I believe that we will be able to consume the news much faster and more convenient than ever.  

What do y'all think, is it time to say goodbye to newspapers?  Do you agree that we should be targeting the Early Majority, or have we passed that point?    

See you next week!

- Josh