Emergence of Digital Publishing – A Great Challenge to The Print Publications

AbstractIn this modern age, people are provided with a wide range of traditional and digital channels. Currently online news sites have greatly satisfied the expectations of the readers, and there has been a decrease in the circulation of print newspapers. This study examines the consumer choice of print and online media with respect to demographics and preference of format. The study adopted a primary quantitative data collection approach wherein a paper based survey of 102 journalists was carried out. This research paper inspected the impact of the variables involved (online media and print media) on each other as well as the cause-effect relationship between them. It also highlighted the two main categories of input — descriptive research and explorative research. To tabulate results of the former, the qualitative data that had been collected (after conducting the Elite and Specialized Interview, and the Focus Group Interview). These three facets were then examined simultaneously on the basis of certain hypotheses made, which were fittingly measured with the help of the Chi-Square (or the Null Hypothesis) test. It was concluded that there is no association between the type of media and personal attributes. Large majority of the respondents, irrespective of their gender, nationality, age, education and income, prefer online media, particularly, internet. The only exception is the senior citizen with age above 50 years, still prefer to go with the print media, specifically, newspapers. It confirms that there is no statistically significant association between reasons and the preference for the type of media. It means that according to the type of media, the reasons do not vary significantly. It can empirically conclude that online media affects print media. Impact of online media on print media happens on the various aspects of print media viz. demand, subscription, market share, print revenue, advertising revenue and profitability