New, but unexpected readers

The readings for this week posed a question regarding why media organizations, particularly the newspaper industry, have tried to stick to Web ads and the revenues they derive from them. Of course, one of the possible answers is because they believe that the online platform attracts both advertisers and readers. But here is a question. How can the newspapers anticipate how many readers will actually visit their Web sites? What facilitates newspapers’ ability to predict with any accuracy the potential number of visitors? Is there a dependable method of measuring the numbers that may ultimately contribute to a newspaper’s revenue? If not, then these actions may be viewed as nothing more than a gamble, since they cannot anticipate any return on their investments.

Alternatively, is it possible that the newspaper industry is misjudging the readers? Many comments regarding articles in the New York Times state that people are willing to pay for the valuable information provided by “the paper of record .” But what makes newspapers believe that paying for information is still attractive to readers in this technology-driven media environment? Regarding the readers, I do not believe that print readers and online readers necessarily belong to different groups. People who do not read print newspapers are no more likely to visit the newspapers’ Web sites and read the articles online than people who read print newspapers regularly. Of course, I do not belong to either group because I read print newspapers and visit their Web sites frequently. But I may be a skewed statistic: I am a j-school student who needs to be an information seeker. If my assumption is not terribly wrong, why does the newspaper industry seek to distinguish between its online users and visitors? To what extent does the newspaper industry trust consumer behaviors?

I do not believe that online news platforms are always attractive to users. In fact, they often seem more annoying. One of the studies surveyed South Korean online users, and the research showed that they are more likely to visit portal sites to get information than newspaper Web sites. The New York Times reported this online trend in South Korea. One of the studies that surveyed South Korean online users found that the plethora of online ads compels people to leave the current sites and move to others to get information. Further, the users said that overload information online lowers the credibility of the information.