The Decline of the Printing Press

The Decline of the Printing Press has been a concern within the industry for many years now. With readership gradually becoming smaller, it is hard to determine whether the print industry has any chance of surviving in the modern age we find ourselves in.

In these uncertain times we find ourselves with the Coronavirus Pandemic it is hard to find reliable sources of information, especially online, that we feel will serve us and our families with the correct information we need to know. After all that was what the news is supposed to inform us of after all.

However, in recent years we find ourselves with more information than what we can handle, making it difficult for us to determine what information we actually need. At one point printed copies of newspapers were our main source of information, whether it be local or international, we knew where to find what we were looking for. Therefore, we must look at the importance of the printing press and the history as to how it came to be in the first place. After all there was a time in which we had to rely on word of mouth and a town crier for our news. As a society we have evolved a lot since those times, but there are still strategies which remain today that are a result of where we started.

With many newspapers moving online, we must also look at who is actually going to be affected by the decline in print. And if print can not survive at who will it affected the most?

The History of the Printing Press

In history some inventions have brought about great change in the course of history and the effect it has on us as human beings, the birth of the printing press is one of these inventions. As the name might suggest, the printing press is a machine that allows for the mass production of printed matter. For example, books and newspapers. The idea of the printing press sounds simplistic in present times, however when the machine was first refined by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15^th century, it was nothing more than revolutionary. Its development would help bring about destroying the control of information in Europe and change the course of history as we now know it.

To understand its importance, we must learn more about the history of the printing press and how it would lay the groundworks for culture and revolution, that we have seen in our society today.

The most known interpretation of the original printing press is the Gutenberg press; however, it is not the first. It is still to this day unknown who invented the initial printing press, but the oldest known printed text was created in China. The piece is called ‘The Diamond Sutra’ and is a Buddhist scroll that was published in around 868 CE. Though this was the first printed text not produced by hand, it did however use printing blocks. Of which the blocks were specifically cut for a project, therefore could not be reused for other purposes.

Johannes Gutenberg will always be known as the father of the printing press, with even one being named after him. At the time of his creation Gutenberg was in political exile from Germany, whilst living in the safety of France he would begin to experiment with the idea of printing. By 1450, Gutenberg had returned to his home in Mainz Germany and developed his famous Gutenberg Press.

The Gutenberg Printing Press had several innovations from the first method of the printing blocks. With the most crucial being that the formerly wooden blocks had now been made of metal. Additionally, each letter was produced on its own block, and those blocks were produced on a large scale. These blocks would then fit together in a way in which the lines of the letters were consistent and appeared uniform on paper, making it much easier to read. Gutenberg even developed his own ink that stuck to the metal, he also repurposed wine and olive presses, into means which would help the flattening of paper.

The first piece to come out of the Gutenberg print shop was the Bible. Known today as the Gutenberg Bible, he printed around 180 copies that featured double columns of text and even some letters in colour. Since the original printing of the book in 1452, many fragments remain to this day, unfortunately there are only 20 complete copies left.

For more information on the Gutenberg printing press please watch the following video from the International Printing Museum:

So why was the invention of the printing press important for society?

It was important as by having a way to quickly reproduce the written word in an inexpensive way, it allowed for an era of mass communication to begin. Books, which were once only obtained by the wealthy to show their status of having the ability to read, could now be reached, and achieved by the common man. The expansion of literature increase literacy in Europe and beyond, now education and reading were not just for the elite class. This in turn would convey information and ideas that would eventually be used to threaten those in power, which they still are to this day in Newspapers. No longer would the common man rely on word of mouth for their information and in turn, the printing press gave the people power of knowledge.

The Birth of New Media

As years went by and society evolved, so did the evolution of technology. The Z1 created by Konrad Zuse, is considered to be the first electromechanical binary programmable computer and the first functional modern computer, which ne made in his parents living room in around 1936.

Though, it was not until 1994, that journalists made their first steps towards the internet. After just a few years of being online journalists had to use the knowledge they had gathered to report on the World Trade Center on 11^thSeptember 2001, both during and after the destruction. At the time of the crisis unfolding, telegraph.co.uk serviced 600 page requests per second. In the space of just one-decade online journalism has become the centre of people’s lives and as a result, some have abandoned printed news completely.

As journalists advanced so did technology, smartphones and tablets I have been easier to access. Therefore, the everyday person no longer needs to go to the corner shop for their newspaper which supplies them with the information they are looking for. They can now access all the information they want as soon as they wake up at the touch of a button. Hence one of the many reasons why online journalism has become so successful over the years. People are busier than they used to be, with the fast pace lifestyles we all lead, it has become easier to rely on our mobile devices than it has our local newsagents.

The only downfall to accessing information whenever we please is the common feeling of news cycle fatigue, if it is not struggling to find reliable sources online, then it is figuring out how to sift through the competing and conflicting headlines that role across our mobiles and social media platforms. But when did the news become such an intricate part of our every day’s lives, and why do we decide to follow it?

There are four main reasons why we follow the news: survival, desire to help and empathy, staying informed and entertainment. Our reasons behind why we choose to follow the news varies depending on each story but those are the common factors which come into play, when it comes to why we choose our news. Hence why over time more of us have lean towards online sources, as we not only have our local news, but we can source it from all around the world depending on our interests. This is another reason why online journalism has become so successful in recent years, an interview which might have taken weeks to set up in previous years, now can be arranged in less than a day and completed in less than a week. Thanks to the advancement of mobile phones journalists can now interview their subjects by facetime from the comfort of their own homes, which has become extremely helpful especially since the start of the Pandemic in March.

Due to online journalism being such a success, it is believed to be one of the main contributors to the decline in the printing press. As not only is our news now online, so is our life. In the past if someone wanted to advertise their services or sell their homes, they would be put in the local newspaper to advertise to the local communities. Now we have social medias where we can create pages and groups especially for these purposes, leaving the printed local newspapers with not much to advertise. This may not seem like a great deal, but advertising was once printed newspapers main sources of income, with companies paying a large sum to have their products and services advertised in the papers.

The Future of Journalism

To consider whether newspapers have a future in journalism, we must first look to the journalists in the industry at the moment to evaluate their views on the matter. I interviewed two editors of separate publications to see what they thought on the matter. My first interview was with Natalie Kershaw the Deputy Editor for the Selby Times, Natalie has been on the Selby Times team since June 2014. With 6 years’ worth of experience in the industry and working for a small newspaper I was interested to see her views on the decline in the circulation of newspapers. To then contrast, I interviewed an Editor of a different newspaper with a bigger audience. Due to the nature of the article speculating the industry’s demise the individual wishes to remain anonymous, but with 24 years’ worth of experience I feel that it is only right their views should be heard.

Have you noticed any chances to the industry since you first started?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Social media just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I remember a journalist I know once writing that everyone is now journalists if they have a phone. When big events happen, or terror attacks, the first footage to come out is always from someone’s phone, not a traditional ‘journalist’ as was always the way before. Social media can be great to help us find stories and get our stories out there, but it can also mean that the story is seen as ‘old’ by the time we do it as it’s already been all over Facebook/Twitter/Snapchat etc beforehand.”

Anonymous source: “Many, many changes. Declining print circulation and advertising revenue have led to a significant reduction in staffing levels at all newspapers. The switch to digital has inevitably changed what we do, and how we do it.”

Do you think there has been a drop in Printed Newspaper Circulation in the UK, if so why?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “There definitely has! Buying a newspaper is seen as a generational thing to many. There are not many people my age (late 20s) who will go out every day to buy a paper, or even pick up their local weekly paper. News is so accessible (for free) online and social media that newspapers are becoming redundant, which is really sad. Nothing beats picking up an actual paper to read. Just like nothing beats picking up an actual book as opposed to a Kindle.”

Anonymous source: “Yes. Newspaper circulation has been falling steadily for longer than I have been in the profession. Whilst I do not have the data in front of me, I can give you one example. I worked at the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough for a few years from 2007. When I joined the Gazette its print circulation was 55,000 a day - now that stands at just under 11,000.”

What do you believe the main cause to be for the drop in printed newspaper sales?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Online. The fact news is so accessible for free online and on social media is a massive hindrance to newspaper sales. I also think, as I said above, buying newspapers is a generational thing and, sadly, the newspaper generation is an ageing population.”

Anonymous source: “There are a number of reasons, the most obvious being that people can now read their news online. The online offer is huge, and often free, so it is a bit of a ‘no-brainer’ that people will go online. Everyone now has a smartphone, so why buy a newspaper? The generation which has continued to buy a newspaper is sadly dying out, and our sales are dying with it.”

What affects has the drop in printed newspaper circulation already had in the industry and how has it affected your readership?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Our readership hasn’t dropped as much as others in the industry. Whether that is because we do not have a website, compared to pretty much every other local newspaper, I am not sure. It means that the only way to access any of our news is to buy a paper, which does help keep people still going out and picking one up. We do find every year, though, that sales drop in December (people out of usual shopping habits around Christmas) and they never recover back up to the same levels in January.”

Anonymous source: “The drop in newspaper sales has obviously meant a dramatic decline in revenue. This is not just down to the cover price – but advertising revenue too. As the print audience has diminished, so too has the number of advertisers willing to pay for an advert.”

Have you noticed any change in sales since the beginning of the pandemic?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Yes we have. The majority of our regular readers are in the older generation so, when the first lockdown happened, we saw a drop in sales with them not being out. However, this has climbed back up in the last few months and we’re now not far off what we were pre-COVID-19.”

Anonymous source: “The most recent available figures suggest a 16% drop from January-March this year. It will have dropped further since then.”

Has there been any strategies put in place to keep Printed Copies going and do you think there is a way to boost circulation?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Not that I know of. If there is, I hope I discover it soon!”

Anonymous source: “Almost everything we are doing now is aimed at increasing our online audience, while maintaining our print product. Other than giving the paper away for free, which has helped some titles to boost figures – not really.”

Do you think there will come a point where Printed Newspapers will be a thing of the past and no longer be in production?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “Sadly, I think we will see that one day. There will come a point where it will no longer be sustainable to keep printing papers (as it is a costly exercise!) if the circulation does not recoup the revenue. It’s much cheaper to put news online (no printing costs, distribution costs etc) and requires less manpower (i.e nobody to set and design pages) so I fear that will be a factor in ending the production of newspapers.”

Anonymous source: “Yes. Hard to say when that day will come, but it will come. Media organisations will continue to print newspapers as long as they remain profitable. They are still profitable today – just not nearly as profitable as they used to be. The main problem is the alternatives now available to the advertisers. In the 1980s regional newspapers had a monopoly when it came to local advertising. If you wanted to sell your house, your car, or your services, you had to advertise in the local press. The newspaper publishers charged a lot for those adverts, and the resulting revenue was by far the biggest source of income for those newspapers – dwarfing what was made by the cover price. Now those advertisers can put those adverts online, and online is where most people look if they are in the market for a new home, car or plumber.”

If Yes, what will the future look like for the Newspaper industry?

Natalie Kershaw, Deputy Editor of the Selby Times: “It’ll be a really sad time. The newspaper industry isn’t just about journalists, there are so many other jobs attached to it - printers, distribution companies, shops that sell the papers… Newspapers have been around forever, and it makes me really sad to think that they might not be around at some point in my lifetime. Online media is brilliant and is a great way to access news straight away, but it can be difficult to differentiate the genuine from the ‘fake news’ online. Some ‘fake news’ websites look really legitimate, so I think that’s a dangerous territory to get into.” Anonymous source: “As technology advances rapidly, and the older print audience dies out, the newspaper industry will move exclusively online. The problem remains that it is harder to make money online. We are selling more online adverts than we were, and our online audience is growing rapidly, but the alternative places to advertise remain. And it is far harder to persuade people to pay for an online subscription than it is to get them to buy a newspaper. So, the business model is bit flawed. There has been talk of state intervention in a bid to support local journalism – but any such ‘sponsorship’ might tarnish the industry’s reputation for independence. The industry is hoping that it can make the online business model work – it has no choice. There will no doubt be casualties. But people still want news, and journalists holding those in power to account is still a crucial part of the democratic process – in fact, it is probably more important today than it has ever been.”

Who will be affected be affected by the decline?

It is clear to see from the information gathered in the article that eventually the decline will have a major affect on the industry and on the audience that still read printed copies of news.

‘The generation which has continued to buy a newspaper is sadly dying out, and our sales are dying with it.’
Anonymous source, 2020

As print numbers have dropped in numbers, so to has the number of advertisers willing to pay for an advert. The result of this has meant that most newspapers have had a drastic drop in their revenue, and with a drop in revenue usually means that the business will have to find away of cutting costs. This usually starts with staff, if the print is no longer making as many copies then there is no need to have as many staff, due to the demand not being as high as previous years.

There is also uncertainty within the industry due to the Coronavirus pandemic, which occurred at the beginning of this year. With the BBC speculating that there could be up to 600,000 job roles lost due to the lockdown. Due to the restrictions of lockdown with social distancing many places can no longer have a large workforce, so cuts will have to be made.

Along with this we must also take into consideration the audience that print has, many of which being the older generation. Our sources from within the industry have stated that the generation of their audiences, is slowly getting smaller. Which of cause is a natural process of life, no one lives forever? But the threat of the coronaviruses means a large amount of prints audience are at even more of a risk, due to their vulnerability.

Many believe that as that generations dies out, so will the printed press industry. Unless of cause the papers, themselves decide to move to online platforms which many already have or the sales of print copies increase. Though are newspapers do decide to move completely online this will result in a devastating number of job losses, from within the printing industry itself. With not much hope of boosting circulation, it appears as though the print industry is simply a ticking time bomb.