US: free information reshaping structure of news industry

Following the undeniable trend of information increasingly available to the public free of charge, The Washington Post columnist Steve Pearlstein presents his hypothesis on the future of the news industry within the US. While his article predicts possible outcomes within the American news industry, his conclusions may be pertinent on a global scale. In particular, Pearlstein notes that the internet and the emergence of free dailies has significantly lowered the cost for advertisers to simultaneously customize and distribute news and advertisements. A wholesale restructuring of the news business, a phenomenon that has been slowly evolving for a number of years, is about to proceed at a fast past. The news industry will have to experiment until it learns how to stabilize around the balance of readers satisfied with the general news available for free, verses those willing to pay for more comprehensive and specialized information. Pearlstein suspects the news media industry to eventually be “dominated by a handful of national and super-regional news organizations that can offer readers and advertisers a full range of differently priced news products through a variety of media.”

Source: The Washington Post