Changing face of journalism

The Independent newspaper will be ceasing printed publication.

A useful article on the conversation blog by a journalist involved in its early years sets the demise in context.

Other useful resources for finding information on newspaper circulation which enable the tracing of recent trends include:

Materials from the Pew Research Center which trace the declining value of American newspapers over the last two decades.  They also publish a really useful annual report with data called the State of the New Media. The 2015 edition recorded that in 2014 newspaper circulation (USA) fell 3% . 

For many large titles usage is shifting online.  The New York Times reported an average weekday print ‘circulation of less than 650,000 in September 2014.  But their website and associated apps attracted nearly 54 million unique visitors in January 2015, and the majority of their paid circulation comes from digital sources (about 1.4 million)’ The New York Times Innovation report showed how an established newspaper was struggling to adapt to the digital world.

 In the UK the Guardian recorded that from 2014-2015 the top 10 UK daily newspapers had recorded an average  fall in circulation of 10%. They continue to record stories relating to the changing nature of news audience on their website.

Other sources analysing and researching the changing nature of news gathering and reporting include the Nieman Lab which has predictions of the future of journalism in 2016 from journalists. 

A new initiative to encourage engagement is the Christian Scientist read about Redirect  which is pushing ‘positive news stories’ on social media.  At present these are aiming to present a more positive view point to counter viewpoints of Islam as extremist.  See some examples on the website.

The BBC has also launched Dropbox a mobile friendly site directed at young African audiences.  The pilot arose from a Nairobi based company it is pulling personalised news stories from The Juicer and CANDY.