People choose to get their news from the internet instead of newspapers
Imagine waking up and going to the front door to pick up a newspaper, only to find nothing there.
Bruce Dold, Margaret Engel and Jurek Martin were on the panel for “Imagine a World Without Newspapers” as a part of the Conference on World Affairs this afternoon. About 200 people attended the lecture on campus.
According to the Newspaper Association of America, newspaper readership has declined steadily over time. In 1964 an estimated 80.8 percent of Americans read weekday newspapers. Today that number is 49.9 percent.
Dold said there are 20 percent fewer workers in the newspaper industry today than there were in 1990. Newspapers are no longer the main source people get their news.
“Our use of media is actually growing,” Dold said. “There are just so many different ways to get it.”
Many people in America, especially younger generations, prefer to get news from other media outlets.
Martin is not one of them. He spent 30 years writing as a foreign editor for the Financial Times and assured the audience he would be the last newspaper reader “in the whole wide world.”
His morning routine is waking up, getting his three newspapers, tea and cookies before returning to his bedroom to read the papers. He admitted it is something he could do on the Internet, but said it is not as comfortable and “no one has designed a tea cup holder for my laptop.”
Martin said newspaper editors are gatekeepers. They choose what stories to print and what news should be delivered to the reader.
“The Internet doesn’t have a gatekeeper,” Martin said.
He said readers have to know what they want and then seek it out.
Engel still believes in the newspaper as well.
“I actually think newspapers will survive in an alternate form and I am looking forward to it,” Engel said.
She said daily newspapers are essential for readers if they want to gather local news.
“You must pay somebody to be neutral and go and find this information,” Engel said. “The fact is somebody has to sit in those boring school board meetings.”
Contact Campus Press staff writer Caroline Marfitano at caroline.marfitano@thecampuspress.com
