Online Media V.S. Mass Media

End term Assignment

Online media V.S. Mass media

Class: CS225

Divij Sharma

20065040k

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank prof. Ravi Sharma for his help on this paper.

Brief Overview

This paper is an attempt to see and gauge the effect of new media onslaught on the old media, why is old media feeling the pinch and what are the reasons why it will lose its ground as far as the revenue stream is concerned. Unless the old media changes it self and improves it content there is little chance for it to survive this battle and will soon find it self in a twilight zone. Where, its existence will be inconsequential.

The two economic drivers that are existent in the new media's DNA are 1. Long tail 2. Narrow casting. These two reasons are and will be responsible for the demise of the old media (in particular print media)

Online media V.S. Mass media

Introduction

As we move away from the new millennium, the news media are proliferating. Large media companies. They See the Internet as the emerging battleground and the next big frontier as they strive for growth.

The Internet, which can be simply described as the conduit of all digitized information, will

Displace newspapers in the delivery of commodity news. Why wait for the printed version? The

Internet is instantaneous. There is no typical reader anymore. Patterns of family life are changing.

There is a growing ethnic mix. Moreover, the pattern of daily life is changing. Many households

, cannot be described as 'married with children'. Everyone is working more: both husbands and

Wives have jobs; no one has any free time; and there is more competition for leisure. Big

Newspapers must appeal to a wider range of people, and it will be harder and harder to cover a Multitude of social niches. To survive in this changing environment, newspapers must adopt new

Technologies, succeed in the Internet business themselves, and develop 'a sustainable competitive Advantage'.

The various papers that I have studied have been stating that online newspapers are not a threat to traditional mediums and rather add a new audience to the parent paper. Also it has been stated that light users of Internet sites are light viewers of TV and heavy users of Internet are heavy viewers of TV. So this thesis was to study the users of online news sites to establish whether these people are readers of the parent newspaper or not. Also what are their TV viewings habits?

If the users are found to be the same as the parent newspaper then the online site can be used to build frequency among the niche audience that it caters to. And if the users are a totally new audience then the site can be used to build on reach. If the online site user read a newspaper other than the parent newspaper then the obvious conclusion is that this is a very good way for a publisher to lure that user to switch to his newspaper.

Newspaper reading is a habit that has not changed as yet and it might not change in the near future either, but the time spent on reading it is reducing. There cannot be enough time for the person to actually glance at anything other than his/her area of interest. The reader most

Probably skims through the newspaper, stopping only at relevant or highly interesting items.

Scenario

Ten years ago for most Indians TV was just another piece of furniture in the drawing room and the only satellite was the moon. A dramatic event happened in 1991. The American news network CNN started direct; satellite based broadcasting of the gulf war. These broadcasts could be received through the dish antennae anywhere in the country. CNN's entry from the sky added a totally new dimension to the television scenario in the country. The Indian television viewer was no longer constrained by the domestic channel of Doordarshan. The enormous possibilities of this mode of direct reception of foreign programmers soon dawned on enterprising Indians and the consumers of programmers.

This was the dawn of the new era in Indian media scene. Things have been rapidly changing since then. The Indian viewer has close to 100 (and still growing at last count) channels to surf through. The latest contest is between the various news and current affairs channels. News has suddenly become a sought after genre. With the maturing of television audiences, programming pundits on the various satellite channels have been steering a drive towards news and current affairs (N&CA). There are approximately seven channels broadcasting 24 hour English and Hindi news to the discerning viewer. And then there are news bulletins on the various C&S and terrestrial channels.

"Giant news providers like Reuters make more money feeding news to corporate desktops and web sites than to their newspaper customers. Branded news channels like CNN, spray out headlines to airport lounges and hotel rooms around the world. Ten percent of the Americans who don't read newspapers, according to one study, skip them because 'the news just comes to me'."(Roger Black, Media Asia, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1997) Publishing on the Internet results in savings of about 40% as the distribution, paper and printing costs are avoided. Lowered costs will result in a win-win situation for publishing houses and readers, but there will be losers such as the distribution companies, printers and paper manufacturers.

"There is no way that newspapers can win in this market, except as suppliers. There is no sustainable competitive advantage. Publishers' of course know this, but not all journalists have figured it out. The Internet, which can be simply described as the conduit of all digitized information will displace newspapers in the delivery of commodity news. Why wait for the printed version? The Internet is