Newspapers without the Paper? (Part 1 of 4)

by lyndsey 9/26/2008 11:00:00 AM

(Part 1 of a 4-part blog series on The Battle for Influence: Online vs. Print Media)

A weekend ritual, I woke up mid-morning on a Sunday in June, brewed some fresh Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and plopped down on the couch to read the newspaper — online. As I logged on to Cleveland.com, the Cleveland Plain Dealer online outlet, a letter from the publisher was staring back at me.

“In addition to coping with the cyclical economic realities affecting everyone, our industry is reacting to a revolution in how Americans get their news and information,” wrote Terry Egger, publisher of Ohio’s largest provider of news and information.

Additional content, as well as the full versions of the brief print articles, were to appear online.

As I read on, I couldn’t help but wonder, is the day when newspapers and magazines will abandon their print versions closer than we think?

Major dailies and other publications are rapidly shrinking, cutting hundreds of jobs and hemorrhaging dollars because of plummeting circulation numbers. The week of Aug. 18, 2008, The Plain Dealer offered buyouts to its non-union workers.

The Plain Dealer is not alone. In fact, the PD’s radical changes reflect a national trend:

In late April 2008, The Capital Times of Madison, Wis., stopped printing to devote itself to publishing its daily report entirely on the Web.
The Washington Post plans to merge its Web and Print newsrooms, bringing job-cut fears to Post editors.
In March 2008, Minneapolis’ The Rake abandoned its printed magazine for the online space.

I am a statistic myself. After working as a journalist for four years, I am now building a career as a public relations and marketing consultant. Based on my experiences, I offer the following blog series, “The Battle for Influence: Print vs. Online Media,” where I will discuss the future of the printed newspaper and what the shifting landscape means to those of us on this side (the PR side) of the fence.