134 PART TwO • THE POlITICS OF AMERICAn dEMOCRACy
The Financial Crisis of the Press. Lately, newspapers have found it increasingly dif-
ficult to make a profit. Newspaper revenues have fallen because online services have taken
over a greater share of classified advertising. The recent economic crisis, which depressed
all forms of advertising spending, pushed many large daily newspapers over the edge.
Newspapers in Chicago, Denver, and Seattle went out of business. Even some of the most
famous papers, such as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe,
were in serious financial trouble.
Although all major newspapers are now online, they have found it difficult to turn a
profit on their Web editions. News sites typically cannot sell enough advertising to meet
their costs. One problem is that most online advertising revenue is collected by sites that
provide search and aggregation services but do not create original content. Google, for
example, collects a full 41 percent of all online ad revenue but provides almost no original
material. In response to this problem, major newspapers have begun charging for online
access, a process dubbed retreating behind a paywall. Access charges, however, reduce
the number of users who are willing to view a site.Television versus the New Media
As we explained earlier, new forms of media are displacing older
ones as sources of information on politics and society in general.
Although it is only recently that newspapers have experienced
severe economic difficulties, they were losing ground to televi-
sion as early as the 1950s. Today, the Internet has begun to dis-
place television.new Patterns of Media Consumption. Not everyone, how-
ever, migrates to new media at the same rate. Among Americans
older than sixty-five years of age, only 11 percent obtain informa-
tion about political campaigns by going online, up from 5 percent
in 2000. In this older generation, 31 percent still rely on a daily
newspaper, although that is down from 58 percent in 2000.^7
The media consumption patterns of “early adapters” of new
technology are different. Some older high-income persons are
among the early adapters, but the new media are most popu-
lar among youth. Indeed, many younger people have aban-
doned e-mail, relying on Facebook, texting, and other systems
for messages. Some have moved on from Facebook to newer,
more innovative social networking platforms. Television becomes
something to watch only if you cannot find the program you
want to see online.
Young early adapters may find much of the older media
irrelevant to their lives. It does not matter whether national
television news shows are willing to pay personalities, such as
Diane Sawyer, and Matt Lauer millions of dollars if few people
ever watch these shows. Yet television news, cable networks,
talk radio, and other older forms of media are not irrelevant to
American politics. Older voters outnumber younger ones by a
Political blogger Ezra Klein of the
Washington Post has become well known as a
guest host on the Rachel Maddow television show.
Are political blogs influential? (Photo by Dimitrios
Kambouris/Getty Images for The New Yorker)- Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, “Cable Leads the
Pack as Campaign News Source,” February 7, 2012.
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