TLDR

As people say “Change is the only constant in the world”, true to the saying the world of journalism is going through a significant change in the 21st century. The concept of journalism has been there for time immemorial. If we take the Sumerian tablets as the first way of sharing information with people right now the digital world is the latest form of sharing information and news.

people say "Change is the only constant in the world", true to the saying the world of journalism is going through a significant change in the 21st century. The concept of journalism has been there for time immemorial. If we take the Sumerian tablets as the first way of sharing information with people right now the digital world is the latest form of sharing information and news.

The world of journalism has always been significantly impacted by technology. The 4 significant impact of technology on journalism would be: the invention of printing press, the invention of radio , the invention of television and latest the invention of the internet. With the current forms of journalism including print, radio, television and Online, competing with each other for a share of its audience, the world of journalism as we know is changing. Here are the list of trends which are shaping journalism around us.

Online medium is becoming the primary source of news discovery

According to Reuters' report there is a shifting trend among young adults to who prefer to use online medium as a primary source of finding news. In its 2017 report on Digital News, Reuter's claim that upto 64% of young adults in the age group of 18 to 24, discover news using online medium. With as explosion of user generated content, most news channels are also resorting to online as the primary source of disbursing all these content.

Trends in Digital News

Screen grab from Reuter's Institute News Report 2017

Paying for Online News Subscription

There has been an increase in audience paying for premium news subscription. Looking at a country wise % payment for news. The Nordic countries seem to have audience paying for news more as compared to countries like Greece with just 3 % .

paying for news

Source : Reuter's Digital News Report 2017

With respect to reason for paying, the top reason seems to extra convenience for the consumers.

Source : Reuter's Digital News Report 2017

Polarization and Fake News

Globally there is a rising concern against fake news. These news and polarized content also seem to have significant impact on election results. Combating fake news seems to be the challenge which global giants like Google and Facebook have on the top of their agenda for this year.

A look at the polarization scores reveal US at the top of the line with respect to polarized media.

Source : Reuter's Digital News Report 2017

Impact of Social Media and Chatting App

Social media and Chat apps are fast becoming main stream of discovering news. According to reports more than 30% of traffic to a news website ( established brands) comes through social media and chat apps. The predominate network for finding news is Facebook, followed by Twitter for breaking news.

Participation of Citizens in News

In the online world, engagement of content by customers is precursor for popular news. This translates into social actions like sharing , liking or commenting on the news. Most people share news when they realize their views are shared amongst their friends circle.

Source : Reuter's Digital News Report 2017

Apart from this citizen based content generation are also becoming mainstream , with most media houses making stories out of posts becoming viral in Facebook or Twitter. There are lots of citizen journalism initiatives which are experimenting with the idea of citizen based news portals.

Rise of Content Marketing and Brand Evangelism

With the growth of Ad blocking softwares reaching about 300m + installs, brands have started being the content to read rather than advertising on content. The growth of content marketing has given way to any brand which has a market say to become a publisher. This is very evident in the B2B segment and experimental in the B2C segment.

The ability to generate content to their audience needs has pushed brands to hire seasoned journalists to run their Newsroom and be the thought leader in their segment. This also opens the Pandora's box of fake claims and content being passed on a gospel truth.

Analytics oriented approach to Editorial & Ads

In today's world it is important to be data driven. Unlike offline operations for which the marketing revenue is based on prior costing based on reach, in the online world marketing expenses are often performance based. This calls for more transparency in the systems and tracking on metrics which are valuable to marketers.

This also in turn translates into more metric based approach to news, and a fair estimate of which news are mostly read and what brings revenue.

With the above trends shaping the journalism industry around us, it is very clear that traditional news houses to adapt to the changing needs of the modern audience. With the power of creating content getting decentralized there are newer models of media houses sprouting in the near future which are adept at adapting to the changing needs.