Final Exam- Winbush
By: Anthony Winbush
Question 1
Newspapers started during the revolutionary era, when New World colonists began fighting with England’s interference in their lives and business (p.317) By the end of the 1700s, newspapers exploded in growth. This all happened because of the first cylinder press, which was first started used in the United States by 1825. The in 1835, the steam engines were used to make circulation even higher. Then in 1886 the Linotype machine improved the ability of quickly creating entire pages of newspapers. It eliminated the necessity for individual pieces of type by creating an entire line of type that could be quickly attacked with other lines that would create whole newspapers.
Then towards the second half of the 20th century, newspapers began declining in readership. From competition with television and other sources, many papers were forced to close. Most newspapers have went out of business, merged with competitors, and or were bought up by out-of-town chains in the later years (318.) An example from the recession in 2008 was that the Baltimore Sun cut the size of its food section to two pages (321.) Most other the newspaper began the convergence to Web sites, rather than print. The Web-based publications eliminated much of the traditional form of newspapers from the production and distribution employees.
Newspapers have been impacted by convergence transforming to digital media with their news article. Most newspapers have a Web site now. Everyone just uses their laptop, iPad or kindle to receive this information instead of carrying around that plus the actual paper. It is cheaper to just go online and read the information than to pay for it. It is also easier to find what you are looking for with the website because you can look up articles from months in the past. If you have a newspaper you are most likely to throw it away after you finish reading it for that day. Their business model changed with convergence because of the rise in alternative channels, such as web, mobile, radio and TV.
These things have reduced newspapers’ market share of advertising. The declining readerships and new media channels that offer admission to more detailed audiences doesn’t help them. The Baltimore Sun uses multimedia and user participation by letting you play games on their Web site. They have crossword puzzles, Sudoku, chess and etc. I feel they use these new media technologies so they would get more online subscribers and if they subscribe to their Web site they are more likely to read some of the articles and they would let their friends know about it.
Useful resources:
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/how-newspaper-printing-changed-time
