How do most newspapers make money?

Newspapers have been around for centuries in this country. They seem to have always been here, there is not a human alive who can remember a time with no newspapers. How have they managed to endure the test of time? Why is it that newspapers don’t go out of business? The answer to both of these questions is, advertising. There are other ways too for papers to make money like a paid subscription, but one of the largest sources of income is advertisement.

Companies want people to buy their products. People read newspapers. It’s that simple, there is a sort of mutualism (minus the animals) that exists between businesses and newspapers. The newspapers allow businesses to put ads in their papers for a fee. Most papers have a set advertising rate, which says how much a potential advertiser must pay for his ad to be seen in the paper.

The amount of money an ad spot costs can vary. Big and long ads might cost more whereas a small ad would cost less. An example of an ad in a newspaper is the classified section. People who are selling something pay a price to have their ad in the classified. It is a win-win situation because the business or person gets attention, which creates revenue, and the newspaper gets money from the advertiser. Through this cycle newspapers are supplied with money to help them keep bringing news to the population.

Quirk, C. 2012, Hearst Communications Inc. How Do Free Community Papers Make Money? 2/26/2012 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/community-papers-make-money-15160.html

What Is The News?

What is the news? If you asked this question of 15 people you would probably get 15 different answers. The news is a strange creature, abstract and tangible at the same time. The news is also extremely diverse. Able to cover a number of topics through a number of media forms in just one of its traits. I suppose that if I had to describe it I would say that, “The news is information which gets relayed between people.” I feel that the reason news is so hard to define is that it’s versatile. News can be obtained in different ways and news covers many topics.

Obtaining the news is an action which the human race has taken part in for centuries. Over time many different methods of doing so have developed. The oldest method is probably word of mouth, a simple yet sometimes unreliable way of uncovering current events. Then you have written word, like in a newspaper or magazine. In the earlier half of the 20^th century radio also became a news carrier. Even today people tune in to radio stations to hear what’s going on. Television is definitely one of the larger news vehicles; stations like CNN who run news continuously reach a wide audience. In the last decade Internet news has become prominent as well. Blogs, videos, feeds and pod casts are now all commonplace methods of obtaining the news.

News is highly versatile, this allows for a wide audience. News can encompass entertainment like celebrity marriages, sports like last nights football game, news such as the upcoming presidential election, or even weather like hurricanes and tornadoes. The other factor that makes for versatility in the news is size. You can have a local newspaper reporting on who was elected town mayor or you could be watching a report on national television about who has been elected president. So many variable make news something that is hard to pin down.