Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries: The Newspaper Publishing Industry

Statistical, Ecosystems and Competitiveness Analysis of the Media and Content Industries 
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of these activities and processes can be done faster and more efficiently with the help of new 
technologies, like portable, small and user friendly camera’s, laptops, desktop publishing 
software, easy access to online sources and fast and cheap communication technologies, 
human labour is still a major cost factor.
Most newspaper publishers however have not completely turned to online news publications 
and still also publish print newspapers. They consequently have to bear double costs of 
producing print and online editions of their newspapers. At the same time they also still 
benefit from the income generated from their print products, which are still in many cases 
profitable, although much less so than before. Online only news publishers have the 
advantage of being able to start from scratch and do not have to bear the sunk costs of earlier 
investments in printing presses, staff and offices. 
Gradually some newspaper publishers start to consider phasing out their print products, 
especially when the time draws near that their printing presses are amortised and they have to 
decide on whether or not to reinvest in new ones. The Guardian for instance has announced a 
‘digital first strategy’, which means that it will give precedence to investments in digital 
products over investments in its print editions. One of the first evidences is that it has ceased 
the international print editions of the Guardian and The Observer from 1 October 2011, which 
it used to print in five foreign cities (New York, Frankfurt, Madrid, Malta and Cyprus). At the 
same time it will expand its digital operations in the US where it is competing with the 
MailOnline over US visitors (MacMillan, 2011). Some newspapers discontinued their print 
products (e.g. the Christian Science Monitor), but for most newspaper publishers completely 
finishing their print publications is not a decision which they foresee to take in the near future.
Users as news producers 
A final important change in the production of news is that users take on increasingly active 
roles by producing or disseminating news through blogs and social networks like Facebook 
and Twitter. Web tools have enabled users to find and organise information online according 
to their own preferences. Services like Digg and Delicious let users bookmark interesting 
information. Through the semantic web users and news organisations can combine open 
information sources and raw data to find patterns. The 2010 publication of secret documents 
on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through the website Wikileaks, in collaboration with 
professional news media such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le 
Monde, El Pais and Al Jazeera is a prominent example of how citizens and professional 
journalists collaboratively produce news stories by examining huge amounts of open data. 
Traditional news providers are responding to active internet use by giving consumers options 
to contribute to their website or by tapping in to the crowd. The BBC, for instance, lets users 
upload their own photos and videos of news events. The Guardian asked its readers to help 
sort out the expenses of the British MPs in the 2010 scandal around British MPs abusing 
public money for personal expenses In 2011 the Guardian, in collaboration with researchers 
from the London School of Economics, recruited researchers with good relations to the 
affected communities to (confidentially) interview people directly involved in the urban 
disturbances, in an attempt to investigate the deeper causes of the riots. They also analysed 
2.5 million riot-related tweets.
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Going one step further, newspapers such as the Guardian, 
USA Today and The New York Times are experimenting with opening up their own data to 
the public, in order to enable others to develop new services or information based on these 
data. For instance an app in which the newspaper's film reviews were combined with data 
from online film catalogues and services such as Netflix (Ingram, 2011).
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/reading-the-riots-methodology-explained

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