Digital
components are embedded to any web edition of news media. The convergence led
by the digital technology makes appearance of web editions of news media look
similar. The text format is not only for newspapers anymore and video format is
not any longer for broadcasting companies. At the time of digital convergence, any
news content can be delivered in same ways on online sphere, so that the
strategy of differentiation on news contents should be more significant than
ever.
Traditionally,
local newspapers were not considered as a substitute for the nationals or other
local newspapers. It is because their publications have been limited to their
local markets. And the role of local newspapers is to serve their local community,
focusing on stories about the community. Therefore, as the Chapter seven
indicated, many local newspapers have a market structure of monopoly. However, online
editions of local newspapers are still considered as a non-substitute for the
nationals or other local newspapers or vice versa? My answer will be ‘yes, they
can be a substitute’, especially in a downturn of news media industry.
Heavy
reliance on AP news for many local newspapers rips distinctive power of local
newspapers. Even though local newspapers still produce community-oriented
stories, they are just a small portion of whole news contents that the local
newspapers produce. Readers are not only interested in community news, but also
interested in a variety of news items, such as business, economics, art,
culture, and food. However, downsized editorial departments in the downturn of
the industry cannot afford to cover those topics on their own. Therefore, they
use AP news to fill up the pages at an affordable price.
However,
this strategy seems to rip the monopolistic power of local newspapers as well
as national newspapers, which do share same contents produced by AP news. Since
all information are circulated through the internet and filtered through portal
news sites, such as Yahoo news, the readers in my local market do not
necessarily access to the local newspapers in order to consume the topics which
they are interested in. Moreover, the New York Times articles on the local
newspapers can be accessed not only by the website of Times but also by the
website of local newspapers which contracted with the Times for the use of the
articles. Even though the big names, such as AP news, the New York Times, are
enjoying their influence on the online sphere, the clear market boundary is
becoming blur, leading to more severe competition among news media.
Among
many reasons, the intense competition among news media may be partly due to 1)
underestimation of internet’s distribution power 2) increasing homogenous news
contents.
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