Newspapers and News Media: Delivering Information to Society 1/26/15 10:40 PM • Newspapers, once ink-on-paper products, have now joined the digital age, relying on the Internet for their success. • Newspapers are distinguishable because of their portability, predictability, accessibility, and cost-effectiveness. • News is current and fresh information about an event or subject that is gathered, processed, and disseminated via a medium to a significant number of people. • The first publication that put out more than a single newsletter was the Boston News Letter of 1704. The dramatic trial of Peter Zenger in 1734 was an important landmark in establishing the concept of a free press. • The colonial papers were small, slow, aimed at affluent readers, and limited in coverage. Some were published to express support for a certain political position, while others were mainly targeting merchants and traders. Regardless, they established a spark of public interest and played a key role in spreading ideas that were important for creating a new nation. • The industrial revolution brought new technologies and immigration that expanded the possibilities for targeting common people as literacy increased, cities grew, and potential audiences were available. In The New York Sun, Benjamin Day put together a system allowing him to consolidate printing technology, advertising support, new content with wide popular appeal, and an effective distribution system. • A few changes in American society spread the popularity of newspapers: rapid population growth through immigration, increased literacy, and technological changes such as the steam press, telegraph, trains, and steamboats. Competing newspaper companies fostered an era of yellow journalism to catch readers’ attention. • As other media arises, the popularity of newspaper subscriptions decreases, which is still happening today. • The old function of informing readers became less important, and newspapers adopted the emphasis of entertaining readers because of the drive for profits. Over time the emphasis then changed to in-depth coverage to compete with television and radio, which both get the news out faster. • Newspapers are forced to change emphasis to compete with other forms of media. • There are several different types of newspapers, from large metropolitan dailies to small free papers given away in public locations.• The digital revolution has led some struggling smaller papers to turn to the Internet for an online
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