Newspapers need to go online or die

IF NEWSPAPERS are going to survive the internet age they are going to have to capitalise on their credibility and local strengths while figuring out how best to make money from their new media.

A panel at the Associated Press Managing Editors annual conference, which looked at the fact that print readership was plummeting faster than a free fall team of acrobatic lemmings, said there had to be change.

Lynn Dickerson, publisher and president of The Modesto Bee admited that the demand for print was not as high as it once was.

However, she said that print was the last collective effort for democracy and had to survive in one form or another.

Panellists agreed that shifting online appears to be the most attractive revenue prospect. However they warned that while revenue from online businesses is growing, competition is fierce.

Not only do traditional newspaper sites need to compete with each other, but also with an estimated 20 million people who news sites, bogs and other forms of new media.

However the panel claims that unlike online media newspapers print publications carry "a longstanding reputation of accuracy, fairness, credibility and independence”. No really.

They said that print's franchise is local news. It costs a lot of money and was the reason most people pick up the newspaper. Apparenlty their reporters are skilled at digging through paperwork at City Hall and other local reporting that the average blogger or online newspaper isn't interested in pursuing.

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