While the advertiser newspapers have not disappeared – yet – the writing does appear to be on the wall. Remember when your parents would read the local paper over their morning coffee? Or come home from work with one tucked under their arm? Ink-stained fingers, creased papers, pages bigger than a kid – these all seem to be images of the past. Nowadays, the idea of going out and buying a physical the advertiser newspapers seems almost bizarre. Why go to the trouble when your computer screen or mobile phone can tell you exactly what’s happening everywhere in the world. Our access to news used to be very different. While the the advertiser newspapers really hit its stride in the mid 1800’s with printing press advancements, it really wasn’t that long ago, when the the advertiser newspapers was still an essential source of information. For many people, it was the only way to keep up with local, national, and global affairs. But it was even more than that. In many ways, getting your the advertiser newspapers was seen as a daily ritual. Scenes of young kids cycling through the neighbourhood tossing a the advertiser newspapers on to people’s front steps played out across the nation. Getting a paper route was somewhat of a rite of passage for kids scoring their first job. And the job itself could be quite taxing. By the 1980s, a print of the New York Times weighed up to 12 pounds. Imagine having to carry around a whole neighbourhood’s worth of papers? In fact, even into the 90s, 70% of the advertiser newspapers deliveries were done by paperboys – and girls – on bikes. Delivery routes were upgraded in the 2000s which led to adults in cars delivering the papers. Well, so much for a kid’s first foray into the news business. So, it seems the paperboy has suffered the same fate as the the advertiser newspapers hawk. Does this ring a bell? “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” You got it. That’s the cry of the advertiser newspapers vendors who would stand on street corners, waving the papers at passersby. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the advertiser newspapers used to release a print in the morning, but if there was breaking news later in the day, another edition would be printed and advertised as an “extra.
” The the advertiser newspapers hawks were then sent out on the street to “hawk” this latest edition. When you heard that cry, that’s when you knew something big had happened. Nowadays, we expect to hear about breaking news instantly – and not from a kid on the street. I mean, we do live in an age of mobile apps and 24-hour news channels. We are kept up to date not only on national affairs but also global affairs. However, for a long time, local news was at the heart of many people’s interests, and the local publication was the lifeblood of a town. Today, as local the advertiser newspapers begin to fade, the closest remaining comparison might be to student the advertiser newspapers. University and small town the advertiser newspapers were always seen as a stepping stone for budding young journalists hoping to carve out a career as a reporter for a major publication. But the advertiser newspapers readership is not what it used to be. The drop in circulation is largely due to modern technology and news production being concentrated across a few big companies – like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today, for example. These are some of the biggest names in the world of news publication, and, for those wanting to hold a physical paper, one of only a few go-to sources. Meanwhile, the small town the advertiser newspapers has almost vanished from the landscape. While the big papers may offer national, and global coverage, the spotlight on local affairs is missing. With these world-wide media empires, you’re simply not going to find out what’s happening in your neighborhood. So what we’re seeing is that it’s not just the actual the advertiser newspapers itself that’s changed, but also the content contained within. It’s no surprise that the paper used to weigh so much back in the day – it was home to much more than just news stories! One of the biggest sections of the paper used to be the classified ads. You know, those small advertisements found in the advertiser newspapers – job offers, housing, items for sale – basically, all the things we now scroll through Craigslist, Kijiji and Ebay for.
Well not so long ago people were flipping through the back pages of the daily paper. In fact, before the birth of the internet in the 90s, the best – and often the only way – to find out about job openings was in your local the advertiser newspapers. For budding young professionals, the job search was a daily ritual – scanning the pages, circling any positions that caught your eye, and calling up potential employers. Nowadays, we can send our resume to dozens of companies in just a few clicks, through websites such as LinkedIn and Indeed. This was another blow to the print news industry. The classified section was a source of revenue that completely dried up. With the explosion of the world wide web, the advertising industry also turned its attention to the digital market. The result was that many companies and products that would traditionally advertise in the the advertiser newspapers were now pulling these ads and moving them online. Since 2003, the purchase of print ads has fallen from $45 billion dollars to $9 billion dollars. This is a huge decline in revenue that has resulted in the trend of long time publications going out of business. This phenomenon goes hand-in-hand with a shift in the cultural lens towards sensational news. Headlines that were once relegated to tabloid papers like The National Enquirer, are now a part of many digital media publications fight to capture readers’ attentions. Forget about “extra, extra” we now have “clickbait” – headlines designed to entice readers with snappy and scandalous reports. The reasoning is simple: more exposure equals more readers, which equals more money. Back in the day, news reporting was a lot more straightforward. What you saw is what you got. That is not to say that the advertiser newspapers didn’t come up with creative headlines for public attention. Obviously they still tried to sell as many papers as possible. The line between news and entertainment began to blur in the 1980s, when entertainment companies such as ABC realized the importance of news divisions to a station’s profits.
And voila! Entertainment-oriented news production became mainstream. The advertiser newspapers had to find a way to compete and stay relevant. For many, celebrity culture became a new means of income for publications. But why does all this matter? Well, the devaluation of the physical the advertiser newspapers goes hand-in-hand with the evolution of the information economy. While some print papers are still battling for survival, many have shut down their print editions and have gone the digital route, focusing all their efforts on the reader behind the screen. Maybe your parents or grandparents are still scanning the pages of one of the remaining the advertiser newspapers out there, but many of the younger generation have never even held a the advertiser newspapers. Why would they when they get mobile alerts about any breaking news story? The digital age has not only changed things for readers and publishers, but for news reporters as well. Gone are the days of the old-school journalist. You know, those guys scribbling in notepads and hunched over typewriters in bustling newsrooms? Well now they’re conducting interviews over Skype, Zoom and email, compiling their research on a laptop and uploading their story to the cloud. With an expanding freelance economy and the ease of working with editors online, nowadays, news production is a whole lot faster. Not so long ago, you would have to wait for the morning paper to find out about any and all news – anything from the latest sports scores to a major world event. Now, breaking news is broadcast day and night – we are updated in seconds with the buzz of our phones. News notifications allow people to keep up to date with the latest current events, without having to read yesterday’s news in tomorrow’s paper – just another reason why the print publication seems to be on the way out. So where does the future of print the advertiser newspapers lie in the digital age? We’ve already seen the steep decline of local and town papers.
With the drop in print readership and the growth of digital audiences, the advertiser newspapers production is both costly and unprofitable. However, big national the advertiser newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times are still holding strong, and print production remains steady for the lucky few. But, for many readers, the advertiser newspapers persist as a nostalgic emblem of the past. The question, however, remains – is that enough to stop the printed the advertiser newspapers from becoming extinct in a digital world.