According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, there is a strong shift in how we are consuming the daily news. People seem to be moving away from print publications to the web. Paid circulation of the nation’s newspapers is down 2.4% last year. The major factors driving this fall are the increasing ease in which readers can get their news online, and the a industry wide focus on trading off unprofitable print publications for online versions with better margins.

Power Of The Web

While many of these publications are moving online, very few of them are really exploring the power of the medium. With the notable exception of papers like the New York Times, print media is apt to see the web as just another distribution channel. They seem unaware of the special challenges and special advantages that the web can provide.

Generally people aren’t moving online just because they can get their news for free, people are moving online because it is a channel where they can get a lot of news in a package that they can easily consume. What newspaper publishers need to realize is that simply taking a print publication and moving it wholesale onto the web misses the point entirely. The web version of your publication should focus quality and precision over breadth. Few people have the time to read your paper “cover to cover” day in and day out. The reason they will come back is if you can provide them with something Google can’t give them.

Also, newspapers need to start embracing new ways of consuming media. Too many print publications don’t provide a RSS feed, or at least are unwilling to provide a full RSS feed for their readers. Any web publisher will tell you that RSS is the one tried and true method of getting return visitors. Trading off user experience for a few pageviews is a strong sign that many of these print publications don’t really understand what they have gotten into online.

Web 2.0 Roundup

It will be interesting to see how quickly mainstream media evolves to take full advantage of the web. As more people move from print online, the successful newspapers will be the ones that allow users to get access to clean, precise editorial content without having to navigate through the sea of junk that they are forced to even now.

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