The other day, I went to read an article written by a journalist working for The Sunday Times on their website (I hadn't bought the paper as The Independent on Sunday is my Sunday paper of choice). I was slightly dismayed to discover that if I wanted to read any of their articles it would cost me between £1-£6 per week. But then, when I thought of it, the cost was justified. By going on the internet to read the news, I was adding to the slow but inevitable death of the newspaper.
Funny thing for me to talk about, don't you think? A teenager growing up in the age of the internet, practically born with a phone in one hand. Yet for a few years now, I've read the paper every night before going to sleep. At first The Sun, before moving on to The Independent, and now the i (since day two!). It's something I don't even register nowadays, just a force of habit, a daily occurrence, like eating breakfast or making tea as soon as I get home.
As the internet has become more widespread, and the idea of instant news has become more commonplace. Why buy a newspaper for £1 when you've read everything on Twitter? Why read all the news that's broken late night yesterday when you can read news that's broken five minutes ago? Newspapers are becoming worryingly redundant as more people turn to the internet.
So why do people still bother? A main problem with this internet is that with so many sources, it's hard to know who to trust. Who's reliable, who's biased, who's parroting rumours, etc. Reporting the facts has been done in so many ways it's dissolved into slush. We need newspapers (and their articles posted online) to give us quality reporting. Our lives would be dominated by pathetic gossip that's difficult to trust and impossible to regulate.
An industry like newspapers has been around for many, many years. Measures like paying to read stories on the internet are just a response to change, a method of keeping their heads above water. Annoying, yes. Necessary, yes.
Funny thing for me to talk about, don't you think? A teenager growing up in the age of the internet, practically born with a phone in one hand. Yet for a few years now, I've read the paper every night before going to sleep. At first The Sun, before moving on to The Independent, and now the i (since day two!). It's something I don't even register nowadays, just a force of habit, a daily occurrence, like eating breakfast or making tea as soon as I get home.
As the internet has become more widespread, and the idea of instant news has become more commonplace. Why buy a newspaper for £1 when you've read everything on Twitter? Why read all the news that's broken late night yesterday when you can read news that's broken five minutes ago? Newspapers are becoming worryingly redundant as more people turn to the internet.
So why do people still bother? A main problem with this internet is that with so many sources, it's hard to know who to trust. Who's reliable, who's biased, who's parroting rumours, etc. Reporting the facts has been done in so many ways it's dissolved into slush. We need newspapers (and their articles posted online) to give us quality reporting. Our lives would be dominated by pathetic gossip that's difficult to trust and impossible to regulate.
An industry like newspapers has been around for many, many years. Measures like paying to read stories on the internet are just a response to change, a method of keeping their heads above water. Annoying, yes. Necessary, yes.
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