Victoria Davis
The Future of News is Black and White: Why Online News Will Never Fully Replace Newspapers
The newsroom has become a site of job instability and uncertainty, as
revenues and circulation have steadily decreased. Some blame the
internet’s rising popularity for the newspaper’s demise. Many consider
print newspapers and online publications to be at war with one another,
noting how newspapers are struggling while their own Web sites offer
free and updated information. But is it possible for internet news and
print news to coexist? This paper explores the relationship between
print news and online news, and concludes that they are too different to
directly compete. One news source will not be able to hold a monop-
oly, simply because each source requires different writing and reading
styles. The internet lends itself to “scannability,” as readers can glance
over bold headlines and click through Web pages to gain a general
sense of the news. Newspaper readers, on the other hand, value rou-
tine and settling down with a paper in their hands. Print newspapers
have always been considered a staple in American society, and their in-
depth, investigative reporting would be difficult to replace with online
publications. Print newspapers and the internet both provide relevant
information, and because they differ so much in layout and writing
style, it is conceivable that both can thrive, and possibly even benefit
from one another.
