The newspapers were hardly getting used to the news being telecasted on the television, when all of a sudden the advent of internet brought a crucial blow to the newspaper industry. Most of the newspapers have not been able to withstand the onslaught of the internet and forced into closure. Let us first see the basic difference between the newspapers and online news.
Pros of the online news
The advantages of online news are mainly for the readers. Some of these advantages are as follows.
The online news is much faster than the newspapers. The moment something happens in any part of the world it gets published on the internet within seconds. In case of newspapers there is a specific time limit for any news to be reported in any particular newspaper. Suppose the newspaper goes for printing at midnight, anything that happens after midnight is going to most probably get published the next day. In these sorts of situation the newspaper offers stale news to the readers who have already accessed the online news.
Any newspaper get published once, twice or maximum thrice a day. On the other hand online news usually gets updated several times in 24 hours.
If one has accesses to the internet, one does not have to wait for the delivery man to deliver the newspaper.
Online news is considered to save paper and help at conservation of nature.
Cons of the online news
The online news has some disadvantages but those are mainly for the newspaper publishers. The rates of subscriptions and advertisements are greatly reduced in case of online news. This implies that as the number of readers of online news increases the revenue generation of the newspaper publisher is falling drastically.
Ways for the newspapers to survive
There are only a few ways that the newspapers can resort to for surviving the blow of the online news. Some of the newspapers charge subscription to the readers that like to read more than what is offered for free. There is just a link for "more" which can be activated and operational after paying some subscription charges. If you do not pay the subscription the "more" link cannot be activated.
Most of the newspaper publishers have realized that if they want the newspaper to survive they have to publish the newspaper in print as well as online on the internet.
The iPad from Apple has brought some hope for the newspapers. There are applications that allow the iPad user to access the internet and the newspapers too.
Nowadays it becomes necessary for the newspaper to make a unique offering to its readers.
The other way for the newspaper publishers to survive is through blogging. There are chances that levying subscription can reduce the revenue generated but at the same it is also seen that unique blogs can bring a lot of business to the newspaper publisher.