The post Trends in journalism: The transition to digital journalism appeared first on TDPel News – News, Interviews, Events.
The digital age definitely changed journalism and the way reporting is done. Previously, writers have to be affiliated with a media company who has the capacity to house printing devices. The high costs of purchasing and maintaining printing devices limited the number of companies reporting events and occurences.
Readers were mainly at the mercy of whatever these media houses print. Therefore, many fake articles were published in the hope of selling more copies, or outsell competitions. An example is one American media house which published a story about a plane that disappeared mid-air only to reappear 47 years later. The story made the expected sales, so much that the media house republished the story twice more, years apart.
The transition to digital age however allowed anyone anywhere to publish stories, thereby increasing competition and forcing media houses to publish only real occurences or face being called out.
As the digital age progresses and as people now read on their dekstop and mobile devices than from papers, media houses are also forced to adapt. Many houses that only publish on print now publish both the digital version and paper print of their pubication and offer it for sale, some (like us) went full digital. This also made access to publications quicker and cheaper for the readers.
While many media house over the years think and has openly complained about the high competition and decrease in sales, analyses suggest that any media house with credibility and large readership can make high enough profit to stay in business.
The analysis is based on calculations of income and expenses. Printing graphics on paper provides a clear sales path – the company prints and the readers buy. However, the cost of printing and maintenance of printing equipments, cost of workmanship and other expenses needed to keep a printing outlet running is eradicated in digital sales. The media house can now focus on gathering credible articles from credible sources. The media house also only have to keep essential staff, while still having income as high as during the paper print era.
Therefore, expenses have greatly reduced and income is still as high as ever.
The ease of publication dissemination, also means anyone can share any writeup or idea or even personal experiences. Many people and influencers can now talk directly to the world using their own online platform or through their social media – leading to competiton for media house. However, this does not necessarily reduce the income of the media house proportionally, because although their income may reduce, their expenses has also greatly reduced. So at the end of the day, the media house is still making profit.
In our personal experience before we decided to go full digital, our stories were printed and as a company, we formed partnership with many printing houses. These partnerships increased liability and reduced income made from our own stories. Going full digital now, we sell online without income cuts or printing expenses. Also, workload has greatly reduced and staff population cut to minimmal. Management can better oversee the daily workflow and staff can focus on writing better stories. Stories are now also published as soon as they are available.
Readers also have access to stories anywhere, anytime which is mostly free to read. Those in premium subscription now enjoy cheaper and faster services.
So it is our conclusion from our experience that the transition of journalism to full digital has 3 major advatanges:
a. Little or no fake stories
b. Continous income flow
c. Better staff management and production
The post Trends in journalism: The transition to digital journalism appeared first on TDPel News – News, Interviews, Events.