Newspaper Competition in the Millennium

Book excerpt: Technology in the 21st century has redesigned most editorial jobs and extended the potential reach of any publication, no matter how small . In effect, not only the individual business models but also the overall industry competitive model has changed. No longer confined to serving a physically defined environment, individual newspapers can set their own goals, both for news distribution and for advertising reach, without concern for physical restrictions. And the continual sales of newspaper properties result in mergers, increased clustering and other types of group alliances. The newspaper industry is also affected competitively by employee recruitment and retention, the non-daily market, other news-related media and non-news carriers of advertising. The industry-related technology has in effect exploded, reaching every news medium in some way. Within the framework of the exploding technological environment, the country's economy and changing demographics have created increased challenges for an industry so dependent on advertising revenue and reader reach. This volume explores the competitive issues as they relate to the industry at this time.