Newspapers: The effect of online technology

1. Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online? Why?

I do agree to a certain extent because the biggest news station in the UK (the BBC) offers there news for free which means those who charge for print and online news are at a significant disadvantage as they can't compete with an organisation who seem like they operate for free. However, making every other online news site go behind a paywall would only mean people would seek out to find free news because people value different things from news, the majority of people only want to see the headlines and see whats going on in the country or the world but other people also share the same values, maybe politically as the journalists which makes them read/watch it. The younger population aren't use to paying for use and expect it so i don't think this idea would work and unless the BBC scrap the TV licence and move into advertising then they won't be going behind a paywall anytime soon and even if they did start using advertising, there revenues from that could be significantly higher than any other media institution meaning they wouldn't have to start charging for news.

1. Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sunday Times) behind a paywall?

By looking at the figures it does show the number of online subs to the Times has increased over three years by a small amount and this would only increase if every news institution were to go behind a paywall, because then there would be fair competition and because of the sheer size on news corp they would probably be triumphant over other news institutions.

1. Choose two comments from below the Times paywall article - one that argues in favour of the paywall and one that argues against. Copy a quote from each and explain which YOU agree with and why.

• - no comments
• Personally though i do agree with the time choosing to go behind a paywall even though they knew it was going to be a slight lost, it showed that they values there staff members and wanted them to feel motivated and hopefully be better.

1. Why do you think the Evening Standard has bucked the trend and increased circulation and profit in the last two years?

The Evening standard was one of the only top newspapers to increase its distribution and since June 2013 it has done so by almost 27% and this is quite a large jump considering other companies like the Wales on Sunday decreased circulation by 27%. I think that the Evening standard has noticed the decline in the number of newspaper being sold daily and have tried to fill a gap. This may work because if they supply to shops in such abundance then people who don't really have a preference may decide to pick up the most "popular" one.

1. Is there any hope for the newspaper industry or will it eventually die out? Provide a detailed response to this question explaining and justifying your opinion.

I don't think the newspaper industry will die out in the next 50 years but it does also depend on what happens with technology because no one thought the newspaper would go into decline just because computer chips were created but in  a matter of years the internet became the new big thing. This may happen again when we become all to fond of the internet a new piece of technology, whatever it is will take over. By this point the newspaper will be all but dead and displayed in museums.I believe the time to panic has already passed and I don't think much can be done to save the Newspaper industry (not very optimistic). I don't think its going to die out quite so soon as there will always be a newspaper around, even if there is just one, as people won't allow it to go especially in the next 40-50 years.