5th edition

John V Pavlik & Shawn McIntosh

Chapter 3:Print Media: Books, Newspapers and

Magazines

E-PUBLISHING: UNDERSTANDING CHANGES IN PUBLISHING

2012: Apple accused & convicted of price-fixing on e-books

Amazon: The leader in e-book sales; did the suit against Apple inadvertently strengthen Amazon’s monopoly?

How will traditional print publishing shift in an electronic environment?

FUNCTIONS OF PRINT MEDIA

Transmission of culture Diffusion of ideas and knowledge Entertainment

DISTINCTIVE FUNCTIONS OF BOOKS

Compilation of comprehensive knowledge in a single document considered a vital, even sacred endeavor

Book burning, protests and censorship highlight importance of books like no other medium

HISTORY OF BOOKS TO TODAY Monastic scribes Specially trained monks, or scribes,

copied religious and classical works in monastic writing rooms called scriptoria

Largely dedicated to promoting the ideas of the Christian Church, many books in this era were written in beautiful calligraphy and richly illustrated

Johannes Gutenberg Invented printing with lead, using

movable type and pressing oil-based ink on paper with a converted wine press

HISTORY OF BOOKS TO TODAY Mass communication and

mass literacy The printing press spread scientific

discoveries and religious beliefs Books and broadsheets printed in local

common languages (the vernacular) found an eager audience as more common people learned to read

Most Europeans and Americans remained illiterate until the nineteenth century with development of textbooks to teach alphabet

Cheaper & smaller books Dime novels Print on demand Digital books

CURRENT BOOK INDUSTRY ISSUES Industry mergers and

consolidation enable publishers to increase profit margins by reducing operating costs

Book publishing industry is intertwined with global media and the entertainment industry

Emergence of online booksellers, electronic books, and on-demand printing is transforming sales and distribution, growth that renders the future of traditional brick-and-mortar bookstores uncertain

SALES AND READERSHIP OF BOOKS

Patterns of book sales have been unsteady: sales of paperback/hardback have fluctuated

Trade books produce the greatest revenue

Sales of children’s & young adult literature on the rise – but adult books cost more, so net profits can be deceptive

OUTLOOK FOR BOOKS

Ebooks accounted for about 1% of total book sales in 2008; 22% in 2012; and are expected to top print sales for the first time in the U.S. in 2013

Downloaded audio books increased 38.8 percent in 2010 to $81.9 million

What price consumers are willing to pay for ebooks remains a question; different publishers try different pricing structures

DISTINCTIVE FUNCTIONS OF NEWSPAPERS

Surveillance: informing the public of important events Local newspapers Serve local geographic communities, monitoring their government, law

enforcement, business, religion, education, arts, and other institutions. Provide a legal record of the community’s public communications, running

obituaries and various announcements. National newspapers The New York Times, the “paper of record” in the United States, offers

especially strong coverage of international events and issues The Wall Street Journal is the nation’s leading newspaper covering business

and finance USA Today, a strong mix of general-interest news featuring colorful graphics

and easy-to-read sections, an overall design inspired by television

HISTORY OF NEWSPAPERS TO TODAY The commercial press & partisan press Commercial: Merchants published the

commercial papers, reported on ship arrivals, departures, and cargo, as well as weather and other items of commercial interest

Partisan: Between Independence -1830s, most U.S. newspapers were affiliated with a political party or platform

Colonial readership & finances Readership was largely limited to those

who supported the political position of the paper and to society’s well-educated, land-owning, and affluent groups

Golden age of newspapers 1830s-1930s: Technological developments

transformed newspapers Penny press Appetite for news (and literacy) increased

CURRENT NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY ISSUES

Many newspapers defer to marketing polls and focus groups when setting standards for content, tone, and layout: increased visual & sensational content

Experimentation with electronic delivery

Reduction, or elimination, of paper printing (increased reliance on electronic production)

CURRENT NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY ISSUES Newspaper chains U.S. newspapers traditionally

owned by families, individuals, or political parties within communities their newspapers served

Pro: Chains offer shared resources for news gathering

Con: Chains can pressure local newspapers for higher profits; can weaken the connection between the local media and the local community

SALES AND READERSHIP OF NEWSPAPERS 2/3 of the cost of publishing a

newspaper: Printing press, newsprint, ink, press operators, delivery trucks and drivers, and maintenance of subscriber databases

Circulation & readership Readership: number or percentage

who read a newspaper Circulation: number of copies sold or

distributed Readership down, especially among

the young, though evidence of increased readership online

Advertising Generate 2/3 of U.S. newspaper

revenue

OUTLOOK FOR NEWSPAPERS Trends in newspaper publishing More newspaper executives

are outsiders, with little appreciation or understanding of the industry’s unique aspects

Digital subscription models progress slowly

Understanding and measuring audiences increasingly critical in an online world

OUTLOOK FOR NEWSPAPERS Local coverage is increasingly important Smaller but more numerous revenue streams

need to be developed as alternatives to traditional advertising and subscription-based models

Advertising increased across all media channels, with relaxed restrictions on political advertising that greatly helped newspapers and other media

DISTINCTIVE FUNCTIONS OF MAGAZINES

Magazines gained popularity in the 1800s with serial novels, released one chapter at a time over many issues

Magazines are published at regular but less frequent intervals (than newspapers), most typically monthly, although weeklies and quarterlies are also common

Magazines typically published on high-quality paper stock intended to be kept considerably longer than newspapers

HISTORY OF MAGAZINES

Early histories of magazines and newspapers are interwoven: technological, business, and journalistic/entertainment functions overlapped; both helped spur the development of modern mass media

19th century: magazines helped America define itself and reach a nationwide audience

CURRENT MAGAZINE INDUSTRY ISSUES

1940s-1950s: Magazine publishers stopped publishing general-interest magazines in favor of specialized magazines on almost every conceivable topic; attracted advertisers who wished to target specific audiences

CURRENT MAGAZINE INDUSTRY ISSUES Magazines specialize in several

major topic areas; the top ten include:

* news * fashion * women (with at least three major subgroups: middle-aged and older women, women under thirty-five, and teenage girls) * families (especially aimed at parents of children under age twelve) * sports * ethnic * medical/health * political * farm * lifestyles (type of home, region, cooking, and so forth)

SALES AND READERSHIP OF MAGAZINES Contemporary magazines subject to

ownership consolidation and media concentration

Circulation & revenue down since 2011, yet every year, there are new magazine titles published (most do not survive more than 2 years)

OUTLOOK FOR MAGAZINES

Online reading trends point toward relatively short pieces as opposed to long, in-depth features

Changing media consumer behavior: greater competition for reader attention makes people less willing to invest the time necessary to read long articles

Full-color pages and high-quality, glossy paper make print magazines both expensive to produce and environmentally unfriendly