In recent news, it has come to attention that the famous New York Times is losing circulation in nation-wide paper sales. The New York Times is very well-known and is read almost every day by citizens. The main reason it is failing to sell is because people do not want to read the paper version of the news. Many people prefer to read the online version because it is faster and more accessible. While this is a benefit of being online, it is important to save the newspaper because this is where many people find all of their information.
There are plenty of reasons that the paper sales of the NYT are falling. The biggest reason is that people are not gravitating towards buying a paper copy of the news. “People want news instantaneously, and the paper most likely comes a day or two late,” librarian Linda Yeatts said. People do not want to be reading old news, especially with how fast our society moves from topic to topic daily.
With a fast moving society, it’s very predictable that we’re moving from print to digital. People use apps like TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook as their news outlet. “People recently have been going to bloggers for their information,” Yeatts explains. These sources are not reliable, but people want others’ opinions rather than what’s really happening. This is one of the main reasons the print-to-digital switch is happening. Citizens are not going to go buy a newspaper to read about a major event when every app known to man is throwing it at their face.
Another viable reason for the NYT losing paper circulation is that paper is expensive, and prices have inflated too high for people to even want to buy paper anymore. People would rather simply look up the news, read what’s new for free and go on with their day. This is also happening to many of our own local newspapers. The Danville Register and Bee is gaining more of an online following, but is losing their paper buyers.
The Trojan Messenger had a decision to make similar to this a few years back, and it was decided to switch the paper to being fully online. Teacher Adrian Nester was over the journalism team at that time. People were more interested in what was going on the Trojan Messenger website than the physical paper version. “It was a hard decision moving the Trojan Messenger fully online,” Nester explained. This sort of situation is sad for news outlets, especially local papers, and can be avoided with proper support from the community.
Online news outlets deliver the same news as paper newspapers, but it is more accessible to the majority of citizens. “The New York Times has not listened to what society wants, and they thought they had a kingdom that couldn’t fall,” Yeatts said. Mrs. Yeatts is not an advocate for the NYT, and she prefers to read local papers instead. Locality is more important to our community, and should be valued enough to get support. “[I’m] more worried about our local papers going out of business,” Nester said.
There are ways you can support your own local paper. Go out and buy a copy of it the next time you’re out, and recommend your friends to go read up on the community. Talk to your guardians about getting a subscription to your local newspaper and express the concern for locally failing news outlets.
