After much thought I moved onto the effect that Internet has had on the business world. This was refined to concentrate on the media publishing industry and the final refinement was to specifically look at the news media publishing industry. So my final research question is as follows:
What are the pressures that continue to shape the contemporary news media publishing industry as it adapts to new opportunities made available by online platforms?
I read the relevant chapters of several pieces of literature during my research and noted down all quotes that I thought may be of use to me as well as all the terms that I thought may be interesting to talk about in my paper. I ended up with 16 pages worth of quotes and research notes which made subsequent work regarding my PRP a lot easier to handle.
After having done my research I planned each section of the document down to each point so I knew everything that I wanted to discuss in the paper, meaning all I had to do then was articulate the points I had noted down. I have since submitted my first draft and received largely positive comments from my tutor.
To provide a summary of my research document, here is my abstract taken from my first draft:
This research paper aims to identify the pressures that are continuing to shape the news media publishing business as it adapts to opportunities made available by online opoortunities. The Internet is at the heart of the challenge to the industry (Ward, 1998) so I will be examining the impact it has had and the challenges it has brought with it.
Declining newspaper readership, accelerated by the emergence of the Internet, underlines just how important it is for the industry to adapt to online opportunities, as revenue from physical sales dries up. The internets gigantic range of free to access sources has triggered a transition in power from the news provider to the consumer, who can now afford to be “selective in [their] consumption of information” (Stephens, 2007).
The Internet has also triggered other trends into motion such as citizen journalism (amateur/untrained journalism), which could be a reason for the perceived decrease in credibility of news content today. Furthermore, a new trend of ‘infotainment’ has emerged, with the ever increasing use of videos and audio podcasts to accompany news articles, raising the question; is the printed newspaper still enough to satisfy our entertainment needs?
News media publishing businesses will have to adapt their business models in order to take advantage of opportunities made available by online platforms. Models involving pay-per-click advertising, donation systems and subscription-based viewing are some of the main business models in use at this time. It has been argued that “Adaption to digital media is not an option, but a strategic necessity” (Birkenshaw, 2002).
It is fair to conclude that targeting will be utilised in a major way in the coming years in order to maximise revenue generated from online advertising. Additionally, selective consumption habbits may accelerate the demise of the newspaper, but ultimately, it can be concluded that if news media publishing businesses do not embrace the digital age, it is likely they will not be able to compete in the industry.
