Print or Online?

Newspapers and news-websites both have advantages:
• A print newspaper can be taken and read anywhere with no technology needed.
However, you do need a shop to buy it from.
• Websites can be downloaded anywhere, if you have the right equipment.
• Websites can include moving images and sound.
• Newspapers can be easier to read, with less information.
• It is easier to interact with websites through forums.
• Websites can be slow to load and awkward to navigate.
• Websites can be updated throughout the day to reflect breaking news.
• Newspapers use up valuable resources in paper and in distributing copies
around the country.

Which is best?
•Do you prefer newspapers or news websites? Explain why you prefer one medium over
another.
• How do you usually access your news?
• Do you think people’s age, location or other factors affect whether they prefer to
access news through print or e-media? Explain why.
• Conduct a survey of people of different ages – does this affect how they receive
their news?
• Look at an edition of a popular newspaper or its website.
• From your survey and research, what demographic is the newspaper / website aiming
at?
• Note down what advertising content the newspaper / website has.
• How well do you think the advertising would appeal to the audience demographic?

The Mirror Online http://www.mirror.co.uk/

• Compare a front page from The Mirror, and the home page of The Mirror
Online. What similarities are there? Look for the masthead, the strap line,
similarities in the logos, design, layout and colour scheme.
• Is there a common recognisable brand identity between the print newspaper
and the website?
• Do you think the website has the same focus on serious news as the newspaper?

Fighting falling circulation

• Like most newspaper groups, Trinity Mirror’s recent history has been of
falling sales, cutting jobs, closing down regional titles and losing
advertising revenue.
• Some ways it has tried to fight the decline are:
– To introduce more interactivity and social media aspects into its online
sites.
– To create spin-off sites like the celebrity gossip site 3am.co.uk.
– To run campaigns like Hope not Hate, with celebrity supporters and lots of
positive news coverage.
– Opportunistic ‘event publishing’ – when Michael Jackson died, within a few
days Trinity Mirror published a ‘tribute magazine,’ priced at £4.99, filled
with photos from their extensive archive.

Do you think The Daily Mirror will survive? Will it still exist in ten or twenty year’s time?

From Devon County Council's Teaching the Popular Press Pack