7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

1/6

7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

2/6

Newspapers and political power after the American Revolution.

o Newspapers played an important role in the Revolution, and nine of the

original thirteen states protected the press from government interference.

o The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1791) stated that

Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the

press.

Newspapers in post-revolutionary America.

o Most were small, family operated businesses with limited circulations in

larger cities.

o Many were aligned with political parties.

o Most people didnt read them, because of illiteracy and price.

o Financing was based primarily on subscription.

Newspapers became mass media.

o The Hoe steam-powered cylinder press made large print runs possible, so

the unit price dropped to one cent.

o Literacy among the working class increased.

o TheNew York Sun appears in 1833 and becomes the first mass medium in

the U.S.; the Sun encouraged the development of other similar papers,

called penny papers (or the penny press) because of the one cent unitprice.

o Vastly increased circulation characterized the penny papers.

o Changing approaches to the news.

The new penny papers were financed by advertising.

The new penny papers redefined news by actually gathering

factual stories and by providing various sections that appealed todifferent kinds of readers.

The new penny press introduced the byline, the dateline, and the

headline to newspapers, as well as the inverted pyramid style oforganizing stories.

o Organizing the news process.

The changes in content required the development of complex

organizations to run newspapers, and interaction with otherorganizations like the Western Union telegraph company and the

Associated Press, founded in 1849 as a cooperative news gathering

company.

Objectivity, in the sense that todays journalists use the term, didnot characterize the mid-1800s press.

o A revolution in newspaper publishing (late nineteenth century).

A readership revolution.

Industrialization, urbanization, the rise of literacy among

the working class, and efficient large-scale distribution

7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

3/6

made it possible for newspapers to develop advertising as

the basis of the financing.

The need to reach large numbers of readers encouraged

competitors to make newspapers visually attractive and to

include photos.

o Print journalism in the early twentieth century. The industry significantly expanded and became more

organizationally complex, adding extensive departments ofadvertising and circulation and providing increased variety in

content..

Heavy competition encouraged a form of sensationalism called

yellow journalism, a term reflecting keen competition between

Hearst and Pulitzer to gain control of a comic strip called The

Yellow Kid;sensationalism was a major component in thereporting of the SpanishAmerican War in the late nineteenth

century and the explosion that destroyed the battleshipMain in

Havana Harbor. Public concern over yellow journalism encouraged the industry to

professionalize, signaled by the establishment of the first

journalism school at the University of Missouri and the graduate

school of journalism at Columbia University.

The industry consolidated into newspaper chains, companies that

owned papers throughout the country.

The tabloid form emerged in the big cities and was associatedwith the youth culture of the 1920s; the tabloids were easy to read

on public transportation, emphasized photos, and were described as

jazz journalism.

o Newspaper industry woes. Advertising, sales, and jobs all declined in the industry during the

Great Depression of the 1930s.

Radio and television caused the number of dailies to decline; thereadership also declined.

The World Wide Web competes with newspapers for advertising.

An overview of the newspaper industry.

o The industry is divided into the publication of dailies and weeklies.

Daily circulation has moved downward, caused by free newspapers

likeMetro and the emergence of the internets online news sitesand cable TV channels.

The daily newspaper chains are increasingly viewed as less

profitable because of competition from other media;

investors are frustrated over downward or static trends in

profitability.

Several major chains have recently been sold.

7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

4/6

Weekly circulation has been less threatened by the newer media;

the weeklies tend to carve out specialized audiences.

They include so-called alternative weeklies targeting young,urban audiences, and shoppers aimed at particular neighborhoods.

o Newspapers are seeking audience niches in an attempt to specialize.

Financing the newspaper business.

o Retail adsserve local businesses and are the most lucrative.

o Classified ads are short announcements for products or services and the

are the second most lucrative.

o National ads come from large companies not located in the local area; co-

operative ads are co-sponsored by a national company and a local retail

outlet.

o Freestanding inserts (FSIs) advertise particular products and services;

theyre added to the newspaper and distributed with it.

o Advertisers base their ad decisions on cost per thousand (CPM), the

amount of money they have pay a media outlet to reach one thousand

people one time; theyre always looking for an efficient (meaning low)

CPM. This is why circulation figures are so important.

Advertising challenges facing newspapers.

o The National Newspaper Network (NNN)makes it possible for an

advertiser to place an ad in any newspaper anywhere in the U.S.

o Some advertisers are following their targets to the internet, encouraging

some newspapers to set up their websites that provide a variety of

services.

o

Online activities are bringing in a small percentage of revenue, but thepercentage is steadily growing.

Circulation challenges facing newspapers.

o The number of readers typically shrinks when the number of newspapers

in an area declines.

o The decline in young readership may eventually result in a decline in older

readers as young people age.

Production in the newspaper industry.

o The publisher is in charge of a newspapers operation, and policies are

implemented by the editor and managing editor.o The advertisingeditorial ratio determines the daily news hole.

o Reporters include general assignment reporters, beat reporters, and

freelancers; news reports also come from wire services, including theAssociated Press, and from syndicates, companies that sell a variety of

newspaper content.

o Reporters work on a deadline, the time that their stories must be

submitted; copyeditors check and edit the submitted stories; some

7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

5/6

reporters also write online blogs and submit stories to online versions of

their newspapers.

o Pagination is the ability to display and compose completed pages, with

pictures and graphics on screen; the digital technology allows editors tosubmit images to plates in the printing operation.

Distribution and the newspaper industry.

o Newspaper firms, especially dailies, are typically involved in distributing

their own products.

o The most basic question they confront has to do with the geographic area

in which they will market the paper, a decision based on the location of

consumers that major advertisers want to reach, the location of present and

future printing plants, competing newspapers, and consumer loyalty to thepaper.

o Newspapers have developed alternative distribution and marketing tactics

that include buying newspapers in fringe areas.

A critical view of marketing and distribution in the newspaper industry.

o Media critics say that decisions to emphasize certain areas and not others

can affect the makeup of the newspapers themselves, as publishersencourage editors to develop features and pursue news of interest to the

target audience.

o Major dailies have been concentrating their circulation efforts on the

suburbs as opposed to the core cities that used to be their audience base.

Exhibition in the newspaper industry.

o The exhibition point of a newspaper will depend on the type of paper.

o Circulation executives for paid weeklies and dailies prefer the exhibition

point to be their readers homes or places of work, as opposed to a

newsstand, because of the guarantee of subscription.

o A key issue in the newspaper industry is finding ways to get people to read

newspapers at a time when news and entertainment are available from so

many electronic sources.

o Because newspaper circulation has declined, its difficult for papers to

reach total market coverage (TMC); direct mail firms and marriage

mail outlets have attempted to take advantage by sending ads directly tohomes.

o

Some newspapers have started their own direct mail activities andshoppers; some have told advertisers that ads lose credibility when they

are associated with shoppers.

A key industry issue: building readership.

o Building print readership.

Newspapers are trying to make their layouts more attractive and

colorful, similar to USA Today.

7/28/2019 Recap Ch08

6/6

Newspapers are trying to design special sections to attract crucial

audiences.

Newspapers are emphasizing localism to increase readership.

o Building digital newspapers.

Newspapers are developing online versions in order to generate

repeat users and to generate enough revenue from the digitalversion to make up for losses on the print side.

The digital version needs to be constantly updated; users can

download stories, an example ofpodcasting, or use RSS feeds or

mobile feeds.

As on the print side, digital versions stress localism.

Some newspapers have purchased other media properties that

enlarge their audiences.

Media literacy and the newspaper industry.

o Newspapers are in a period of transition as they attempt to adapt to the

digital age.

o The future delivery system may be online or, more probably, a

combination of online and print.

o Some observers predict the demise of print newspapers, but the mediums

history would suggest adaptation and change rather than demise.

o How the newspaper adapts will help determine the nature of the news flow

through our society.