The Internet Can Help the Survival of Print Media

If publishers smartly utilize virtual tools, the internet, a fierce enemy of the print industry, can turn into an ally and help increase sales, improve image, or circulation.

prepared by Sandra Babić

The internet has killed print media. Newspaper publishers have had to deal with such ominous comments in recent years. The penetration of broadband networks into households has glued users to computer screens, who, some say, prefer clicking a mouse rather than smudging their fingertips with newsprint. But is it really so? Will the digital world destroy print media? This time we will not lament their future, but rather state that their greatest enemy – the online world – can be of some benefit for increasing sales, improving image, increasing circulation… Recently, a thesis has emerged in the media world that social networks can indeed serve, at least in part and for some brands, as allies rather than saboteurs of the publishing industry.

Subscription via Facebook For example, the network of all networks, Facebook, has proven to be an excellent tool for exchanging information, staying updated, and many fan pages function as a kind of generator of the most important information that increases traffic on publishers’ websites. However, it seems that the benefit of Facebook is not only reflected in its ‘general characteristics’ but there are new areas for symbiosis or a new approach to the social network for extracting greater benefits. As announced by Brandchannel.com, Facebook will implement a partnership with some newspaper publishers such as Time starting in August, promoting their content and selling subscriptions. Users of the social network will be able to share ‘links’ to interesting content with their friends while simultaneously getting the option to subscribe to ‘terrestrial’ print without having to leave the virtual world, i.e., Facebook pages. Given that, according to the latest data, Facebook has managed to gather an incredible half a billion users, even a million new subscribers attracted through this medium would make a significant impact on the publishing industry.

Launching Related Services On Mashable, a reputable blog specializing in digital media and social networks, publishers are advised to follow the examples of those who continuously launch fresh online content that serves to promote ‘terrestrial’ editions or projects. For instance, the German magazine Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) launched a thematic website to promote the translation of the book ‘Kindly Ones’, a controversial novel that stirred up dust in America and Europe. With a website where users can read certain chapters from the book or download audio files, it gained an advantage over the competition, offering added value to readers interested in that edition which has stirred considerable debate. Two years ago, the Enquirer magazine created the CaptureCincinnati site, which served as a photo service where users can browse images from amateur and professional photographers. In a very short time, the number of photographs rose to 12,000, and the newspaper company released a DVD with the best ones and a book at a retail price of just under $40. Enquirer executives are convinced that this photo service helps build the brand, strengthens user loyalty, and ultimately helps increase magazine sales.

Collaboration with Users In addition to these extensions, the Mashable team recommends launching ‘story-based communities’. These are services that allow users to comment on breaking news in real-time, browse photos and videos. Such a thing has been very successfully launched by the Canadian newspaper brand Toronto Globe, which, with the help of the Cover It Daily site, participates in discussions with users, and includes part of that content in the topics it covers. The British start-up Yoosk calls itself an interactive magazine because it tailors the content of its ‘terrestrial’ edition according to the demands of internet users. On its websites, users can suggest topics, ask something of the powers that be, and suggest which interviews they would like to read in the magazine. Its founders hope to establish cooperation with other news agencies that could extract parts of the content. The Denver publisher MediaNews Group has come up with an interesting way to attract new readers using the internet. Specifically, it has devised a so-called personalized delivery called I-News or Individual News in collaboration with the L.A. Daily News.

Personalized Newspapers Its plan is to allow subscribers to choose sections or news from other parts of the country they would like to read via the internet and simply order their copy. The mentioned publishers truly live by the saying ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer’ and have mitigated the negative predictions about the death of journalism by starting their own services to at least somewhat control virtual competitors. Of course, sometimes the simplest thing is to open a profile on a social network, but, no matter how simple it may seem, it also needs to be managed wisely to see the effects of virtual ‘bonding’ with users in the end. One of the pieces of advice that publishers can hear from internet experts is that it is important to offer quality content. Previous research has shown that this means that breaking news should be placed on profiles to engage users and draw them to the website. In the age of fast media, such short exclusives should be smartly placed on the internet immediately, while analyses should be left for print editions. Experts also claim that it is wise to place links to lists on profiles (they have always been and will always be popular), compilations of the best articles, advisory articles, and research.

Disadvantages are Advantages Social networks ‘suffer’ from deeper analyses, i.e., educational texts that users will want to bookmark and read as needed. Of course, controversies always ‘sell’, so there is nothing wrong with placing such content that will provoke user reactions and help the publisher to form content based on the opinions of its target audience. Thus, the internet has proven to be a great tool that can help publishers stay updated and modify their offerings based on user feedback. In the long run, it is clear that the battle for survival for many will become increasingly bleak, but those who survive will have, despite the turbulence, an additional benefit from integrating into the virtual world – both in terms of image and sold copies.