Where are people going to find news and information they trust, in a world with a dwindling number of print publications and an ever-expanding number of online publications? Readers have not yet figured out the answer to that, according to a recent report released by the Center for the Digital Future at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Almost a quarter of Internet users who also read newspapers would miss the print edition of their newspapers if they disappeared, according to the study, and 18 percent have stopped subscribing to a newspaper or magazine because they can read the same material online. More than three-quarters ranked the Internet as an important source of information, yet just over half said newspapers were important.
It is a typical mistake in most lightweight analysis of media consumer preferences, confusing the medium with the message.
The Annenburg study did not ask if people do not want printed media any more, or don’t like getting information in print, or think everything is better and preferred in digital rather than print. No, the study asked specifically about their printed newspaper, whether they value it, would they miss it, would they rather have it – specifically – online. Their answers were not terribly favorable toward the printed newspaper. But it is not established, by this study, whether that is because it is printed or because of what the newspaper contains and how it is presented in that medium.
Other studies (for example) show that print is still a strongly preferred medium for particular content, purposes and presentations, even among the digitally minded.
This argues, then, not for shelving printing presses but rather for making better use of them to turn products more desired and better tuned to today’s readers than the traditional newspaper.
