The newspaper industry has been in decline for years, getting the news use to involve a tangible source, a newspaper. Nowadays, with the internet, real time information about current events are just clicks away. It is t
his level of convenience and accessibility that is causing the downfall of newspapers and journalism. The old business model of newspapers use to be simple, every morning people would pick up their daily newspaper and catch up on the events that happened the day before. It was an ingrained behavior and became part of people’s daily lives. Once people began to go online, people stopped buying newspapers. Companies had to quickly adjust their business model or get swept out of competition, some companies did better than others, and many struggled to make the change. Many newspapers found that getting consumers to pay for fees for online access was difficult, as there were already so many free new sites out there. It was a textbook case of tragedy of the commons. With so many free alternatives presented to them, consumers began to take online content for granted and stopped paying for it.
Publication have resulted to disguised advertising to sustain themselves. The is how companies like buzz feed or mashable thrive, publishing articles such as “which donut are you?” sponsored by the company dunkin donuts. My fellow classmate Mathais Lund mentioned on his blog that he “does not appreciate” these native ads as he feels its dishonest. While I share the same feelings, my concerns run deeper than that. Native advertising has become so prevalent that even reputable news outlets such as the BBC and CNN have started doing it too, this becomes a huge concern because it allows cooperate interest to influence the media. If a publication is willing to publish an article for cooperate interest, who’s to say they wouldn’t hide a scandal or edit a story for the same cooperate interests. The separation of church and state, with church being advertisers and state being content, has always been a hallmark of unbiased journalism. Yet under the digital age, where publications are faced with incredibly fierce competition, this principle is under attack.
This rise of native advertising, has led to the decline of investigative journalism. Many struggling publications care more about catering to sponsors than providing meaningful content. The root of the problem lies in the failing business model of newspapers, not every publication has enough prestige to run a subscription model like the New York times. However, quality content should be recognized and rewarded in the form of crowdfunding or pay per view methods, we as consumers should also reconsider our attitude towards publications and not take journalism for granted.
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http://www.contently.com.blog/quiet-death-of-church-and-state
http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2014/07/07/native-advertising-examples
