Is online newspaper kicking print newspaper out of history?

Author: Shiming Yuan


Abstract
With the emergence of the internet in the late 20th century, an online form of the traditional newspapers comes into being. With almost all newspapers posted online, the online news has revolutionized how we perceive newspapers and the way people interact with their news. It witness an increase of the online readership and the press industry has realised that online newspapers might be a threat to its printed counterpart. Whether the traditional press industry can sustain its hundreds of years of glorious achievement? Will it be defeated by the new media, namely the online newspaper? Or will the traditional media and the digital media combine? These are issues that newspaper groups need to consider and explore. It is also the goal of this article, to see how these two media position themselves in the digital age.
This paper analyse the relationship between online newspapers and the printed newspaper. Based on research and using the Sydney Morning Herald as example, the features of the online and printed newspapers are analysed and compared. The paper comes to a conclusion that the emergence of online newspaper undoubtedly will lead to a new reading revolution, but it is not likely to replace its printed counterpart. These two forms of mass media would coexist and play a complementary role.