Newspapers: The Rise
and Decline of Modern
Journalism
Chapter 8
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http://www.newseum.org/exhibits_th/exhibits/
pulitzer_photos/index.aspx?item=pulitzer_onli
ne_exhibit&style=c
Niiu.de
the personalized newspaper
e.g. of a micro medium
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Enthusiastic newspaper readers will soon be able to use the
website niiu.de to compile their own, personalised newspapers
from their preferred daily papers.
The newspaper will have about 24 pages and will be printed
according to readers’ wishes and delivered to them at home.
So far, this project includes the German dailies “Tagesspiegel”,
the “Frankfurter Rundschau” and the “Märkische Allgemeine”, as
well as two Russian papers; seven more are set to follow.
Social network sites are also involved with Niiu: by using a
Facebook application, personal news can be incorporated into
the newspaper.
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Having to juggle multiple national, local, and
international papers to find one's interests would
inevitably become a chore, especially vis-à-vis the
speed and convenience of internet news.
The same behavioral phenomenon is in fact the
very reason why the internet seems to be ruining
traditional newspapers; people, especially young
adults and students, are tending find their news and
information from a variety of sources on the internet
rather than a single source that marked the
newspaper's monopoly and success in the 20th
century.
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The resulting idea was simple and clear: an
individualized newspaper, composed of selected
pages and sections from papers, delivered each
morning to one's door just like a regular paper.
The main idea was to combine all the varying
sources of news and information, because it is
normal for young people who have grown up with
the internet to have not one source of information
but many
“A lifetime champion of women and the poor, Nellie
Bly pioneered what was then called detective or stunt
journalism. Her work inspired the twentieth-century
practice of investigative journalism—from Ida Tarbell’s
exposés of oil corporations in the early 1900s to the
2008 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting...”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRo-lz53_w8
Documentary from National History Day 2009- Made
with Final Cut Pro Junior Division, 3rd Place in States
Please comment and rate:)
Newspapers Today
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Newspapers have historically acted as
chroniclers of daily life.
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In the digital age, the industry is losing
papers and readers.
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Inform and entertain
2007—Total newspaper ad revenues fell 7%
overall, despite 20% increase in online ad sales.
Losses raise big concerns for future of
newspaper’s.
The Evolution of American
Newspapers
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Colonial papers
 Benjamin Harris: Publick Occurrences (1690)
Inflammatory by standards of the times
 Not a newspaper by modern standards
 Banned by the colony after one issue
John Campbell: the Boston News-Letter (1704)
 Reported on mundane events that took place in
Europe months earlier
James Franklin: the New England Courant (1721)
 Stories that interested ordinary readers
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Colonial Papers (cont.)
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Benjamin Franklin: the Pennsylvania Gazette (1729)
 Historians rate among the best
 Run with subsidies from political parties as well as
advertising
John Peter Zenger: the New-York Weekly Journal
(1733)
 Arrested for seditious libel
 Jury ruled in his favor, as long as stories are true.
 Decision provided foundation for First Amendment.
By 1765, about thirty newspapers in American
colonies
Partisan Press
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1784—first daily newspaper
Two types: political and commercial
Parties shaped press history.
 Anti–British rule
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Political agendas shaped newspapers.
 Partisan press forerunner of editorials
 Commercial press forerunner of the modern business
section
Circulation in hundreds, not thousands
Readership: the wealthy and educated
Penny Press
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1833—Benjamin Day’s New York Sun
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Human-interest stories
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Local events, scandals, and police reports
Blazed the trail for celebrity news
Fabricated stories
Ordinary individuals facing extraordinary
challenges
Success spawned wave of penny papers.
Penny Press Contributions
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Developed a system of information
distribution
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Promoted literacy among the public
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Modern technology to mass-produce and cut
costs
Wire services
Middle- and working-class readers could afford
the papers and were attracted to true-crime and
human-interest stories.
Empowered the public in government affairs
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Articles about politics and commerce
Yellow Journalism
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Pulitzer and Hearst
Sensational, overly dramatic
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Crimes
Celebrities
Scandals
Disaster
Intrigue
Provided roots for investigative journalism
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Exposed corruption in business and government
Competing Models of Print
Journalism
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Objectivity
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Ochs and the New York Times, 1896
 Distanced itself from yellow journalism
 Focused on documentation of major events
 More affluent readership
 Lowered the price to a penny, so middle class read
as marker for educated and well-informed
Inverted-pyramid style
 Answer who, what, where, when (sometimes why
and how) at top
 Less significant details at bottom
Limits of Objectivity
• Can news ever be objective?
• Are facts alone enough?
•What is a verifiable fact?
• What do we need from newspapers?
Newspapers Undergo Change
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USA Today
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Color
Mimics broadcast news in use of brief news
items
Online journalism changes the news
landscape.
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January 1998: The Drudge Report broke
Lewinsky story before Newsweek.
 Reduced standards for journalistic accuracy?
Economic Demands vs. Editorial
Opportunities
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Newshole = 35 to 50% of paper
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Newsroom staff
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Remaining space devoted to advertising
Publisher and owner
Editors
Reporters
Photographers
Copy editors
Wire services and feature syndicates
important sources of material
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Staff cannot possibly produce enough or cover the
world.
Ownership, Economics,
Technology, and Innovation
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Decline in readership
End of competing newspapers in cities
Joint operating agreement (JOA)
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Two newspapers keep separate news
divisions while merging business and
production operations.
In 2007, JOAs were still in place in 10 cities.
Newspaper chains
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Gannett nation’s largest
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. multinational
What Gannett Owns
Newspapers
• 85 daily papers and 900
nondaily publications
– USA Today
– USA Weekend
– Asbury Park Press (N.J.)
– Detroit Free Press
– Rochester Democrat and
Chronicle (NY)
– Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
– Cincinnati Enquirer
– Courier-Journal
(Louisville, Ky.)
– Des Moines Register
(Iowa)
– Honolulu Advertiser
– Indianapolis Star
– News Journal
(Wilmington, Del.)
– Tennessean (Nashville)
– Army Times Publishing
Company (newspapers)
– Newsquest plc (newspaper
publishing, United Kingdom)
– Texas-New Mexico
Newspaper Partnership
(41%, community
newspapers)
Television
• Captivate Network
(advertising-based
television in elevators)
• 23 TV stations
– KARE-TV (Minneapolis)
– KNAZ-TV (Flagstaff, Ariz.)
– KSDK-TV (St. Louis)
– KTHV-TV (Little Rock,
Ark.)
– KTVD-TV (Denver)
– KUSA-TV (Denver)
– KXTV-TV (Sacramento,
Calif.)
– WATL-TV (Atlanta)
– WBIR-TV (Knoxville,
Tenn.)
– WCSH-TV (Portland, Me.)
– WGRZ-TV (Buffalo, N.Y.)
– WJXX-TV (Jacksonville)
– WKYC-TV (Cleveland)
– WTLV-TV (Jacksonville)
– WTSP-TV (Tampa)
– WZZM-TV (Grand
Rapids, Mich.)
Internet
• CareerBuilder (40%)
• Classified Ventures
(24%, online content
publishing)
• Planet Discover
• ShopLocal.com (42%)
• Topix.net
Magazines and Printing
• Clipper Magazine (direct
mail advertising)
• Gannett Healthcare
Group
(periodical publishing)
• Gannett Offset
(commercial
printing)