Our newspaper is still profitable, but not by much. Should we stop printing the paper and go online or is there something about printing the paper that is worth keeping? Pick a side and argue your point.
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I think that we should do both. Since we are still making a profit printing papers, I do not think we should stop. However, I do think we need to go online with our paper. This is the direction of the times, and it is a way that many of our previous subscribers are now getting their news. I think we would be crazy to not have an online version of our paper.
I think there is nothing better than being able to lay down on the floor and read the Sunday comics that are spread out in front of you. This cannot be replaced with an online paper. I think we need to brainstorm new ideas on how to keep our printed paper profitable. My idea is to offer content that is only available in our printed papers. One of these could be local coupons to various businesses in our area. I think if people can spend $2.00 for our paper and save $5.00 at their favorite restaurant or $10 at the local clothing store with the coupon found in our paper, they will be encouraged to purchase more papers. This will also help the local businesses. It seems like a win-win situation to me!
I agree that the experience of a paper copy is something that can not be duplicated by an electronic version. My sister is an English major and she buys or rents all her books from the store – she has to have a paper copy. She says there is something about reading a paper copy that helps her retain information better.
Only downside I could see for us is the lack of sales. We would need some serious advertising to convince people that our product quality is top notch and they can save a little extra.
I’m of the opinion that as long as the physical paper remains profitable, we should continue to publish it. At the same time, we should be trying to optimize our web presence to pick up the slack, determining the best combination of advertising, subscription content, and other options to maximize online revenue. With our web presence positioned accordingly, we’d have the option to transition to online-only in the even the physical edition began to lose money.
Writing, thankfully, is something that we can mostly port over from the print edition, but a small editorial staff dedicated to the online version should be on-hand to make sure the website is as high-quality as possible — better quality will likely mean more revenue.
JRN F101 — Wyman — Summer Week 4, Discussion 1 of 3
If our print newspaper is still profitable, but not by much, and the question is being raised as to whether we should stop printing and go online or not, I think we should tread carefully and not make any sudden decisions. I think it would be best to develop or further improve any online presence with the expectation that someday in the future our news may be delivered online only. But, we should also work now to boost the print edition to maximize profitability. Print newspapers are still significant and favored by many traditional customers. The presence of sales advertisements and coupons are a selling point for the print edition and many of our readers would rather have a physical, print, copy to read and flip through without the need for an electronic device. Newsstand sales, often spurred by top of the page, front page headlines and photos, continue even as online news delivery becomes more prominent. It would be premature to stop our print edition but its days may be limited.
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I agree with the others that if the print newspaper is still profitable, even if still a slight profit, then we should continue to publish it. I think it’s important to continue with the same trend that we’ve been doing and the fact that it’s still making somewhat of a profit for us is great. I do think that we should start to explore the option of adding an online newspaper, but we should really look at the risks of transferring completely to that method. We would need to look at similar companies and their profits to determine if making the switch will bring in a significant revenue, or will it remain approximately the same as it currently is with a print newspaper? We have to also consider that there are many individuals that are opposed to reading online and may not want to continue reading our publishings if we completely switch over, meaning that we would lose that profit that we were still holding on to. There’s many different aspects we must consider before we just completely drop the print and pick up online publishing, and since we are still making a profit, I vote that we continue with what is currently making us money and explore the possibility of someday doing an online print.
Although our newspaper is still marginally profitable, I believe we should stop printing and go online. As time passes, the ‘traditional’ newspaper is becoming obsolete due to diminishing readership, the escalating high cost of production, as well as the availability of news via the internet. Since most newspapers print only one issue per day, they cannot deliver breaking news in a timely manner as compared to their online competition. Peoples’ demand for instantaneous news has resulted in a shift to the internet as a means of collecting news in real time.


Today, hardly anyone who’s interested in news reads the newspaper. With a declining subscription rate we need to find a way to adapt to the demand for online news. Targeting the young, college-educated, professional, media-literate men and woman is the market we should focus on. The technology that was readily available to them growing up continues to improve exponentially, to the point where, in my opinion, anything written on a piece of paper that has any value will become digitized.
The cost of production — financially and environmentally — is the determining factor in deciding to take the content onto a digital platform. The cost of wood products needed to produce a physical newspaper are much higher than the cost of inputting the same content onto a website. As well, the continuing practice of de-forestation will increase carbon dioxide and other potentially harmful gasses into the world’s eco-system, which will have long-standing impacts on our way of life.
Today, an online presence is practically mandatory to be taken seriously as a publication. The most successful setups, in my opinion, have an online and print presence. Does that mean we have to commit 100% to both? Absolutely not. A very successful balance can be achieved by having a top notch website that offers some background stories, extra content, videos, or more photos that didn’t make the paper. The print paper should be our basis, it should be strong and well-done, then the website can add more to the stories. This way having the print edition is important, and if people like what they read it can drive them to the website. Also, a web presence is crucial to marketing and advertising. Having a website opens up more doors for more advertisers which is more money.
Could we also add something to the print that would then translate to the web presence? I know we’ve read about extra content bits in magazines, like codes that can be photographed and then link consumers to extra online content — could that work in a newspaper too?
I believe it would depend on the environmental factors present in the community that the firm operates in. If we are just a small newspaper with a local footprint I would recommend caution. Yes, websites are nice but we have to be sure that our readers have a want for this type of medium. If we just go at it without proper research and involvement with the community we could make our newspaper non-profitable very fast. If it is the case that the viewers want more e-content, then we should do it at our earliest convenience. Concurrently we should also be talking to advertisers in the community that would want to pay us to place ads for them on the website. If we do the planning now, maybe we can expand and support two fronts and get our medium out to more customers on a daily bases.
Week 4 Part 1 (Eddie Crosby)
In looking at this heated topic I would have to first say let’s stick with publishing i.e. printing the paper as well as allowing the consumers to access your paper online for a minimal fee, that way you do not loose potential consumers from both print and online, “kill two birds with one stoneâ€. I also believe that in order to boost sales I think that the content needs to be updated to reflect the viewer’s wants that would include a more needed web accessible content page included in the paper print. I also think that with the 90% post-consumer waste reduction movement that is going on in America instant access movement then the possibility of further research may be needed as into focusing on a potential full movement towards let’s say a less modest approach of at least 25% to 50 % online print movement at first as a test run, and if that movement works then a more aggressive movement in let’s say one to two years’ time frame of 75% or more, but always in that method I would keep a steady eye on the financial data in order to try and not to eliminate the print model completely, because I think that a small percentage of the population will always endure even with the ever increasing online technology advancements.
There is a greater benefit this day in age by going online. Over the last decade, the number of magazines and other formerly printed material going online has skyrocketed. It is available to people from all over the world in an online format, and it allows to people to share it, and repost it all across social networking sites. The publicity and the circulation that an online newspaper can get is significantly higher than a paper version. That being said paper still does have its advantages. I know some people that refuse to use an ebook, and will only own hard copies of their favorite novels. Similarly, there is something about printed magazines and newspapers being able to pick up at the checkout counter that is preferable to finding them online. Something about holding it in your own hands and owning a paper copy makes it seem more lifelike, and as if you really own it. For the older generations, I am sure paper copies are still more valued. In this case we should look at our readers and see who the online version applies to more. I would say in the next 20 years, paper copies will be almost obsolete. For now, I’d say we should have minimal but available paper copies and increase our online content.
I agree with the increase in online content — it is aimed at the growing audience of younger persons, or at least a generation with more familiarity with technology. You’re right in that something cannot replace the physicality of holding a newspaper though, from the feel, the action, and the look of it.
I feel that with the such wide generational gap that we still have here in this country that we should actually have both venues. I see and hear from the mature generation out there that they still like the printed copy, but with the newer younger generation that is so hell bent on technology and having access to everything at their fingertips, I feel that we should branch out into the electronic method also to be viable to everyone. I know that at some point in the future though, we should move completely into a all electronic version of what we do, but at this time I do not believe we are ready for complete transformation yet. We need at this time to have our hands in both venues to meet the needs and demands of both generations for now.
I agree. I feel we need to keep both options available for now. We are in a transition time involving largely impactful mediums and changing our ways one way or another in too much of an extreme may be harmful to our company.
Unfortunately I think we do need to end our printed version and focus on an online / e-tablet medium. Perhaps we could do a once weekly printed version — Sunday papers are typically the most popular, especially for local news as that is when most classifieds, ads, and weekly stories are published. I think this route would be best. I know the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer has an online edition that will let you read 30 articles online for free a day, and anything over you must be a registered (and I assume paying) member to access. There is a draw-back to this system though: upon opening a new window or deleting browser history before returning to the site resets the count. If this bug could be fixed and there was some way to ensure added income from the online publication, along with the weekly printed special, I believe we would see readership numbers grow.
As long as there are old people that are unwilling to advance into the digital age, we will continue to make a profit from the paper, so I’d say we should probably just keep both formats. Both can pay for themselves through ad revenue and subscriptions, so I don’t see any real harm in having both.
In my opinion, we should advance with the rest of technology and move to an online site. While it is nice to have printed newspapers, at this day and age, there is just not enough profit for it. It is just like video rental stores that have started to close down. At one point they were very profitable but as technology advances, there is less and less demand for them. Just like in economics. for there to be profit, there has to be a demand for the product and with everything and everyone progressing, I believe it would only make the company more appealing to move to an online site.
I feel as so long as we are still profitable we should continue with print. There are followers of our paper who are resistant to the changes technology is forcing upon our world. I feel as though we should still cater to those. This is not to say that we shouldn’t keep up with our competitors. We should explore our online options and become available to the masses by producing an online edition. This way as long as we still are profiting by our print versions we can produce our online versions for little to no cost higher then our current expenses. If anything we can offer our advertisers additions exposure in our online additions making them more prone to stay with our company. It will become an incentive to stick with our company rather then explore their other options and go with a company who only does online papers. This may appeal to other larger companies as the learnt extra exposure is talked about. It will be for our benefit to continue with our paper editions for the time being.
I’m a personal fan of continuing with print, and purely for aesthetic reasons. Producing a newspaper is fun because it produces something tangible, something that you get to have an experience with. I also think that is why we are still profitable. We may not have the largest following, but we have a committed following of people who love newspapers for the same reasons we do. There’s something about the feel, the smell, the act of reading a newspaper. Going online means we have to create another department and pay more people to access an audience that is not likely to be large enough to have that much of an impact on our pocket books and wallets. The only way I think it would be acceptable would be to charge readers if they access our online website more than ten times a month, and I don’t necessarily agree with those tactics. I think if we have a supportive following of newspaper readers then we should just focus on that market and find ways to make that even better.