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As the studies and information discussed above show that online newspapers are becoming more popular and their readership is increasing, the readership and reputation for print newspapers is decreasing. This can create problems for the newspaper industry because of profits received to make it. Alterman, the author of Out of Print, says that “newspapers have created Web sites that benefit from the growth of online advertising, but the sums are not nearly enough to replace the loss in revenue from circulation and print ads” (Alterman, 2008). If newspaper companies cannot make enough profits, then how would they continue to print newspapers and afford them? The online editions of newspapers may be causing problems for the newspaper industry since the print version of the newspaper is what makes the profit for the newspaper companies. Another serious problem for the newspaper industry is the job losses. It is not a coincidence that since the beginning of the web edition of newspapers, twenty-five percent of jobs dealing with the newspaper have been lost (Alterman, 2008). These factors unfortunately may lead to an end of newspapers in print, and this is because the online editions do not meet the profit needed to keep publishing.
Readership of the printed newspaper has also declined. The average monthly hours of reading the newspaper by the American people who buy the printed paper has fallen by fifteen hours (Alterman, 2008). This is a significant decrease in readership. Only making matters worse for the printed newspaper, just eight percent of a group under age thirty-five who was surveyed in the study done by Carnegie Corporation mentioned earlier, would count on the newspaper for information (Alterman, 2008). These statistics are a threat to the printed version of the newspaper.
The influence of the net edition of newspapers has clearly decreased the importance and popularity of the print version. Although there are many positive effects of having net editions such as forums, clicking on the stories one wants to read, and quickly updated information, there is a single negative effect which could wipe out newspapers companies. This single negative effect of the net edition is that the printed newspaper is not read as much and its audience has declined, which has led to less profit. By having a decrease in profit, the printed newspaper might die. Just a few months ago, quite a few newspapers in the United States announced that they were going bankrupt (Network effects, 2009). As proven, the outlook for newspapers is gloomy. If the newspaper companies go out of business, then there will not be a print version of the newspaper or a net edition, since the company itself will not exist.