Week 5: The Newspaper Industry

Question 1

Newspapers:

Answer 1

printed products created on a regular (weekly or daily) basis and released in multiple copies.

Newspapers did not exist before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the mid- 1440s.

Question 2

Adversarial press:

Answer 2

press that has the ability to argue with the government.

Question 3

the penny press

Answer 3

aimed at the “common man combined with fast printing-press technology and cheap paper to encourage the growth of a new kind of newspaper – the penny press – beginning in the 1830s.

Question 4

newspaper Dailies:

Answer 4

newspapers that are published in newsprint every day, sometimes with the exception of Sundays.

Question 5

newspaper Weeklies:

Answer 5

newspapers that are published in newsprint once or twice a week.

Question 6

chain ownership in newspapers

Answer 6

Daily newspaper chains: with only a few exceptions, daily newspapers tend not to have competition from other printed dailies; most of the dailies in the US are owned by a few larger firms.

Question 7

Weekly newspapers have been somewhat less affected by the enormous challenges daily newspapers have been experiencing. Why?

Answer 7

They have found topics or audience areas which they can cover easily. Four topics stand out:

Three geographic ones: coverage of neighbourhoods within cities, of suburbs, and of rural areas.

The fourth area focuses on certain types of people – specific ethnic, racial, occupational or interest communities.

Question 8

Alternative, weekly newspaper

Answer 8

a paper written for a young, urban audience with an eye for political and cultural commentary.

Question 9

Shoppers, weekly newspaper

Answer 9

free, nondaily newspapers, typically aimed at people in particular neighbourhoods who might shop at local merchants and designed primarily to deliver coupons and advertisements, though they may carry some news or feature content.

Question 10

what is Circulation in newspapers? What are the main concerns today with Circulation?

Answer 10

(the number of paying subscribers) is not the same as readership. Some copies tend to be shared by a few or even many people, and newspapers try to convince advertisers their readership (the number of people who actually go through the paper) is quite a bit higher than their circulation.

Although distribution of physical newspapers still makes the most money for their firms, many newspaper companies reach readers in digital form: through websites, mobile apps, Twitter feeds, etc.

Two main concerns:

1) Whether young people will stop reading printed papers because they are so heavily involved in electronic media;
2) Whether young people or anyone else will pay for digital newspapers enough so that newspapers can survive, as their printed versions decrease in importance and the amount of advertising they receive online is not enough to support staffs of professional journalists.

Question 11

what is Pass along rate: in newspapers?

Answer 11

the amount of sharing between people of a newspaper copy.

Question 12

in what 2 ways do Newspapers generate revenue? What percentages of revenue were they historically, and how have they changed?

Answer 12

advertisements and circulation

Advertising is by far the dominant source of money. Historically, daily newspapers have received between 75%-80% of their revenues in this way, with around 90% for weekly newspapers.

This percentage for daily newspapers has dropped in the digital age: while circulation money is holding steady (many newspapers have increased their subscription fees), advertising money has dropped significantly, so the percentage received from circulation is larger today.

Question 13

What are Freestanding inserts (FSIs) in newspapers?

Answer 13

pre-printed sheets that advertise particular products, services or retailers.

Question 14

What is Cost per thousand readers or cost per mil (CPM) in newspapers? How does this allow comparison between different ad media?

Answer 14

the basic measurement of advertising efficiency in all media; it is used by advertisers to evaluate how much space they will buy in a given newspaper or other medium and what price they will pay.

Advertisers often compare CPM of different media, so newspapers must compete not only with other newspapers but other media as well, like radio and TV.

Question 15

What is Retail Advertising?

Answer 15

local retail advertising is carried out by establishments located in the same geographic area as the newspaper in which the ad is placed. Some of these advertisers may be parts of national chains, but the purpose of such ads is to persuade people to shop in the local outlets. Retail advertising is the most important of the three main areas of newspaper advertising.

Question 16

What is Classified advertising?

Answer 16

the second most lucrative type of newspaper advertising. Newspapers usually sell classified ad space by the line to people who want to offer everything from houses to beds to bikes. The recent drop in this type of advertising has a lot to do with the rise of online real estate, auto and general classified sites, especially free ones like Craigslist. They provide users with continually updated information, interactivity and immediate responsiveness that papers cannot match.

Classified ad: short announcement for a product or a service that is typically grouped with announcements for other products or services of the same kind.

Question 17

What is National advertising?

Answer 17

airline and cruise line ads are often national purchases. Political ads and movie ads also often fit the “national” tag. In co-op advertising, manufacturers or distributors of products provide money to exhibitors in order to help the exhibitor cover the costs of promoting a particular product.

National ad: advertisement placed by large national and multinational firms that do business in a newspaper’s geographic area.

Question 18

As for advertisers who do come to the newspaper’s website, they insist on paying far less per thousand readers than they would pay in the print edition. Why?

Answer 18

They can do that because the competition for ads online among websites is so fierce that it had driven prices down drastically. The upshot is that even when newspapers attract more people online than they do offline, the amount of money they make advertising to them is far lower.

Question 19

In the context of newspapers, what are the two meanings of “Editorial”?

Answer 19

1. the creation of opinion pieces by the firm’s editorial writers
2. all non-advertising matter in the paper

Question 20

Advertising-editorial ratio

Answer 20

set by the publisher, this ratio determines the balance between the amount of space available for advertisements and the amount of space available for editorial matter in one issue of a newspaper

Question 21

News hole

Answer 21

the number of pages left over and available for editorial matter (based on the number of pages needed for advertisements).

Question 22

Editor:

Answer 22

the executive in charge of all the operations required to fill the news hole.

Question 23

Managing editor

Answer 23

individual who coordinates the work of the sections (or departments) within the newspaper.

In a daily urban newspaper, typical departments might be sports, lifestyle, entertainment/leisure, business, TV, city news, real estate etc. Each department has someone assigned to it, though there are some who cover a variety of topics within their department. They may cover events in the city hall, crime, college athletics, movie reviews etc.

Question 24

General assignment reporters:

Answer 24

newspaper reporters who cover a variety of topics within a department.

Question 25

Beat: (in newspaper)

Answer 25

a specific long-term assignment that covers a single topic area.

Question 26

freelancers:

Answer 26

workers who make a living by accepting and completing creative assignments from a number of different newspapers-sometimes several at a time.

Question 27

wire services

Answer 27

organizations that, for a fee, supply newspapers with a continual stream of hard news and feature stories about international, national and even state topics via high-speed telephone, cable or internet connection (e.g. Reuters).

Question 28

Syndicates

Answer 28

companies that sell soft news, editorial matter, cartoons and photographs to newspapers for use; they supply some of the most popular parts of the newspaper.

Question 29

Copy editors:

Answer 29

the individuals who edit written stories by reporters; they edit for length, accuracy, style and grammar and write headlines to accompany the stories

Question 30

Pagination:

Answer 30

the process by which newspaper pages are composed and displayed as completed pages, with pictures and graphs, on screen.

Question 31

Total market coverage (TMC):

Answer 31

reaching nearly all households in the newspaper’s market area.

Question 32

Direct mail firms:

Answer 32

advertising firms that mail advertisements directly to consumer’s homes.

Question 33

Marriage mail outfits

Answer 33

advertising firms that specialize in delivering circular advertisements that might otherwise be inserted as FSIs in newspapers; they produce sheets and brochures from several advertisers that are bundled together.

Question 34

Why is building readership important in physical newspapers?

Answer 34

Publishers know that physical newspapers charge more per thousand readers for advertising than their websites do and bring in far more advertising revenue than their web versions. In the foreseeable future, their organizations could not survive without a healthy print edition.

Question 35

Name 4 key strategies to increasing a print newspaper’s readership?

Answer 35

1. More attractive and colourful layouts: most papers have switched to colour presses and embarked on major redesigns aimed at stopping readers in their tracks and getting them to want to read every issue. The aim is to create a quick and not-too-taxing read.
2. Sections designed to attract crucial audiences: newspapers aim to create a collection of articles that are relevant to the audiences that newspaper companies care about. The idea is to concentrate on news that people can “use” – relevant to their lives.
3. Emphasizing localism: many newspaper executives have concluded that it is reporting on the communities in which their readers live that gives them an advantage over competitors.
4. Newspapers have increased their attention on city and regional stories getting on the front page, adding sections that relate to the goings-on in the neighbourhoods. This allows advertisers to target segments of the newspaper’s market without paying for advertising in the entire distribution of the papers.

Question 36

Mobile feed:

Answer 36

stories specifically formatted for the user’s smart phone or tablets.

Question 37

RSS feed:

Answer 37

a flow of stories on topics the reader has chosen that the newspaper send to the individual’s computer so that the user does not have to visit the paper’s website to see it.

Question 38

Podcasts

Answer 38

audio recordings that can be downloaded to MP3 players.

Question 39

Paywall:

Answer 39

a barrier that prevents people from accessing digital material without first paying money.

Most online newspapers don’t erect a complete paywall: they provide a couple of free articles per month to their readers and require payment for more (examples: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times). Thus, they hope to create a reliable base of readers.

Even as newspaper firms struggle to increase the amount of advertising they sell online, they have a greater challenge trying to convince audiences to pay for their product.

Question 40

What is the “hyperlocal” strategy for newspapers?

Answer 40

Publishers believe the way to distinguish from competitors is to emphasize the “local” aspects. This has created the “hyperlocal” strategy – trying to reach out to many more geo and demographic segments in the area than the physical version ever could and gather advertisers who want to reach these segments.

Question 41

What is the “public sphere” and what role does information media play in it?

Answer 41

Information media play a central role in the public sphere (Habermas) – the realm of social life where the exchange of information and views on questions of common concern can take place so that public opinions can be formed.

Benedict Anderson and imagined communities: we develop certain assumptions we share with others who read news and have an “imagined community” without having to ask each other. As newspaper consumers we understand the communities we belong in and begin to imagine where we belong in a nation we are part of.

Question 42

What are “content farms” and how do they push down journalist salaries?

Answer 42

When such sites note that a topic is “trending”, they put out the word that articles and videos need to be quickly written about those topics. The articles show up high in the online search results and people are likely to click on them.

This inevitably leads to superficial writing as quality journalistic pieces lie in the newspaper’s digital archives, only showing up down on the list because they haven’t been written or positioned in the way that content farms use.

These content farms are pushing down journalists’ salaries because those who work there are freelancers who don’t get paid much.