Print mass media: territory of survival

Abstract

Akhmadulin Evgeny Valerievich – Ph.D. of philology, professor, head of journalism theory dpt. Institute of philology, journalism and cross-cultural communication of Southern Federal University. 

The article is devoted to the problem of the survival of the print media in the information market in the conditions of intense competition with online journalism and the whole information flow on the Internet. Despite the predictions of the impending death of print periodicals, more than half of the world adult population read a daily newspaper. At the same time, the trends taking place in the media market, confirm the reduction of print media segment in favor of the Internet. According to TNS-Russia data, only in 2013 the Internet audience has grown by 6 %. At the same time the circulation of print media in the US fell by 15 % in 2008- 2014, in Western Europe – by a quarter. In Russia, subscription circulation periodicals in the second half of 2014 fell by 20.2 %, and on the basis of subscription for the first half of 2015, the national average – 22 % (data of Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Russian Post”).

Finding ways to stabilize the fall of the print media, many US publishing houses see the transition from advertcentric business model to consumcentric model. It is necessary to use the specifics and advantages of newspapers and magazines (comfort, media planning logic, analytic, continuity and consistency of the content of individual and hypertext editions, and others) to maintain the intellectual elite.

Print media targeting to an elite audience (willing to pay for exclusiveness) allows publishers to offset the rising cost of issuing paperbased, and consumers (subscribers) will give a sense of communion to a certain social community, receiving verified and thorough information. In this case, the subscription to a newspaper or magazine (no retail outlet and online) will be fashionable factor of association of elite communities and acquire new qualitative features in the development of civil society.

Key words: print media, newspaper, “print”, “figure”, the Internet, media market, longreads, fast journalism, complex journalism, elite audience.