Printed papers

It's been a long time since a dollar per newspaper could afford the printing, production and logistics; not to mention the digging up of stories, maintenance of sources by reporters and all the other jobs and costs related to the stories out in the newspapers.

In modern times, a dollar helps almost nothing in the process.
So how can papers keep alive ?

Simple: with advertisement. Full printed posters with fashion models, perfumes or cellphones, lowers or nulls the cost of a printed paper. Most newspapers are given if not hand-forced to you because the higher the distribution, the higher the advertisement gains.

This has been a good life for papers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.But what about digital newspapers? I know, for sure, that I do not read printed papers any longer. I watch TV and read news online. This creates a whole new market, also supported, in majority, by advertisement. Are printed papers being cast out of existence?

In the new millennium, has anything not distributed digitally any chance of surviving?

Speaking with a Lia Moreira, Journalist and specialized in newspaper reporting, she believes the main cause of this increasing "paper disease" is related to the reading habits:
"Reading papers is progressively becoming a habit of the most senior."

An example given was the picture of the "morning coffee and paper", which is not present in the daily lives of the youngsters:
"Young people want to keep informed too. However, they take the chance to do so once they are in the computer, probably at their work place, where they can do other things at the same time."

Questioned about the future of the printed "press", her words reflect some sadness when she agreed that the smaller papers will die first:
"Not the free city papers. Those are given to you and you unlikely will say 'No'. We will see those for some time still.
However, the local papers that depend on money will disappear. If the company is large enough, it may migrate to digital distribution and other sources of revenue and survive. Smaller companies will not make the cut."

About the future for journalism she shares a deep concern with her fellow journalists:
"The printed press, in general, is continuously reducing the new hires and investment in this area - which only worsens the situation."

The "new media" concept is changing information for everyone. Just a few years ago, my TV didn't come through my Internet.