User:Montalvc/sandbox

From the first newspaper publication in 1690 to the twenty-first century’s, newspapers have functioned in the nation as vehicles in the American Revolution and early nation; as promoters of consumerism and its values in the nineteenth century; as announcers for political and social issues, and as arbiters of national values. During the early period in the American Revolution around thirty newspapers were published throughout the American colonies, often to make a living from political currents and for a particular political agency. After the 1830s, the Mass-circulation developed and during 1990 newspaper circulation was at its highest.
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The decline of newspapers has been debated, as the industry has faced slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. "In recent years newspaper’s weekday circulation fell 7% and Sunday circulation fell 4%, both showing their greatest declines since 2010. Overall, the industry continues to shrink, with Editor & Publisher’s DataBook listing 126 fewer daily papers in 2014 than in 2004". To survive, newspapers are considering combining and other options, although the outcome of such partnerships has been criticized.Despite these problems, newspaper companies with significant brand value and which have published their work online have had a significant rise in viewership

According to Martin Hamer “One of the major reasons for the decline of local and regional newspapers was the rapid expansion of free newspapers”. During the 1970s and 1980s there was an increasing use of regional newspapers, known as “freesheets”. Now, local free newspapers are delivered directly to homes weekly and contain advertisements for businesses and services. An example of a free newspaper in USA is the Washington Post Express, distributed at buses and subway stations. To be financially viable, free newspapers focus more on marketing as part of their business model but the emergence of this free newspaper appears to have had a negative effect on the sales of paid-for newspapers.
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Decline in Readership Due to the growth of digital technologies, traditional print publishing industries, including books, magazines, and newspapers have experienced a decrease in their readership. According to Barry Hollander, it is difficult to overstate the overall percentage in decline print readership, but it is a fact that socio- demographic factors affects it. “Decreasing generational replacement of the print publication habit, age, income, and education, have been identified as key to understanding the decline in newspaper readership”. With each generation, fewer and fewer young adults continue with the tradition of adopting the local or nearby newspapers into their home and into their print readership routine.
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The E- Reader According to Kathryn Cook and Micah Issitt, declining newspaper readership has been linked to the increasing popularity of internet sources, along with a growing number of smartphones and tablets. Most e-readers have access to books, magazines and newspapers, either through wi-fi or phone connections. The portability and accessibility of E-reader sources has been suggested as the reason for further decrease in the consumption of printed newspapers. In March 2011, Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison expressed concern that new technologies would only serve to increase America’s literacy divide.
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Impact Current Population Survey conducted an analysis between the closure of the Rocky Mountain News, the Seattle Post- Intelligencer Newspaper and a significant decline in civic engagement of citizens in Denver and Seattle. The results suggest that this decline might be attributed to the newspaper closures. “The data from the CPS indicate that civic engagement in Seattle and Denver dropped 30 % significantly from 2008 to 2009—a decline that is not consistently replicated over the same time period in other major American cities that did not lose a newspaper”. Scholars argue that newspaper were fundamental for the formation of associations that were vital to citizen’s participation. According to research, newspapers include readers in the community as active members.
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