(Story and photo by Andrea Damewood, BSJ '06)

With newspaper circulation declining nationwide, many editors and publishers fear their greatest competition is not from television or radio stations, but from their own Web sites.

For the first time, the Belden Associates' "Sales and Site Survey" has shown that newspapers may be harming their own business by making content available online. Three panel members gathered September 23 in Fisk Hall to discuss the cannibalization of print news by their online counterparts as part of the continuing "Brown Bag" lunch lecture series.

"Publishers, editors and circulators are scared," said Steve Duke, project manager for the Media Management Center's Readership Institute, which focuses on the decline in newspaper readership. "[They] believe that their site is cannibalizing their product."

However, Duke and his fellow panelists, Owen Youngman, the Chicago Tribune's vice president of new products, and Rich Gordon, chair of Medill's new media program, said that the issue was not as black and white as one media platform replacing one another.

Many media analysts blame the downward trend in circulation on the availability of free content on the Web, Gordon noted, but that deterioration is due to an overall change in the way people are obtaining their news. Current solutions like charging for online access will provide mixed results at best, he said. "I have doubts that any one newspaper can put a finger in the dike and stop the flood."

Gordon said the good news from the Belden survey, administered on the Web pages of five newspapers including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, Dayton Daily News and Longview (TX) News-Journal, is that 90 percent of consumers have not changed their reading habits. But, of the 10 percent of consumers that have modified their behavior, more readers have cancelled their subscriptions (six percent) than started new ones (four percent).

Youngman pointed out that newspaper circulation has dropped since World War II. He paralleled the effect of online news on print news to the impact television had on radio in the late 1940s. "The newspaper industry would be better served by thinking of all these things as filling particular needs at particular times," he said.

The group also touched upon other recent competition to traditional newspapers, such as the Chicago Tribune's RedEye tabloid, and making news available on a customer's cell phone. Youngman said that Web sites, cell phones and RedEye are all based upon the idea of building a readership habit.

"It's not just about the content," Youngman said. "It's about the relationship with the reader and what we do with it. I don't see the newspaper going away, but I have a very broad definition of a newspaper."

By Shayla Reaves

Astrid Garcia is the outgoing President for the National Association of Minority Media Executives. She is one of the most powerful minorities and one of the most powerful females in the newspaper industry. Astrid attended the Media Management Center's Advanced Executive Program (AEP) at Northwestern University. Currently, she serves as Vice-President of Human Resources, Labor, and Operations at the San Jose Mercury News in San Jose, CA. Here are some responses from a Q&A with Astrid about NAMME and the newspaper industry.

What are some of the major issues facing the newspaper industry?
"One major issue we are facing is the uncertainty of classified revenue and the impact that will have on our current business market. Another issue we are facing is declining readership and the challenge of improving readership in the Hispanic community."

How do you think newspapers are being affected by the increasing convergence of print and broadcasting mediums?
"The jury is still out on convergence. We have not been able to figure out the business model that works convergence and the Internet. They are currently up in the air."

How do you see NAMME evolving and dealing with a changing media market?
"There is an opportunity. That kind of uncertainty breeds the opportunity to bring executives from various mediums and it can be a hot house for ideas."

Are there any special issues you faced as both a female and minority in an executive position that you did not anticipate facing?
"Many times I sit at the table and I am the only woman and the only minority present. I've had to learn not to react to that and have grown to relish the role of being the first person in the position and being able to lend advice to others."