Welcome Back, Strategic Communicators!

Hey communicators and welcome back to my professional blog!

The last time we all were here, we shared this space to exchange our thoughts about Leadership and Media Strategies. Now, we are back and the course has switched just a little. Every week, I will now exchange my thoughts, still being a strategic communications professional, but under the guise of emerging media.

For the returning readers, thank you so much for coming back, and, for the new readers, thank you as well and I look forward to your continued return. Before we get started on the new entry, all me to reintroduce myself...

My name is Jatavia, sometimes I prefer Jai (pronounced like the tenth letter of the alphabet), but either is fine. I am a Master's Degree candidate at Troy University, pursuing my degree in Strategic Communication and graduating in the next few months. How exciting! As of now, I work for a leading news station as a Digital Content Producer in Georgia. I've been in this career for a year and a half. I attended Albany State University (GO RAMS!), where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication with a concentration in Electronic Media. After graduation, I have hopes in switching into the world of Public Relations while also focusing on being a Content Creator.

Now that you all know a little bit about me, let's get into the topic for this week: Newspapers, more specifically its decline.

In our class discussion this week, I told a short story about growing up watching my grandmother read the newspaper. Every morning, either she or I would head to the mailbox and bring the paper in. She would make her coffee then sit and read the paper from front to back. I would not be too far away to grab the funnies from her and proceed to read and laugh away. That routine was something I looked forward to having when I become an adult. However, because of the decline and death of printed news, that day never came.

I have vivid memories of the newspaper being so prominent from adults having the jobs of being professional paper throwers to selling the "big" paper in front of stores every Sunday. I am a few years shy of 30 years old and I have never purchased a newspaper.

Technology has advanced and changed so many aspects of our day-to-day lives. With a swipe of a screen or push of an app, we literally have endless information at our fingertips, so the decline of print news seemed inevitable. According to the Pew Research Center, the print newspaper industry has experienced a dramatic decline over the past two decades. Since 2004, weekday newspaper circulation in the United States has plummeted by 57%.

Many news outlets have scraped print all together and transitioned strictly to digital. In my opinion, those who have made the switch, are seeing that delivering the news comes with more work than before. There are so many alternative news sources that have gained popularity that the once reliable newspaper sources have to work to keep up with the demand and quickness of news.

Where newspapers had the time to curate well-researched and throughout articles, prior to the digital boom, now, it's all about being first. Digital newspapers still not only have to the responsibility of keeping the integrity of a good well-written article, but social media also has to be implemented to stay on readers' radar.

To be quite honest, I think the death of print news has already come upon us. Prints like magazines and other news articles that are still around and more for nostalgia’s sake. Phones, tablets, and iPad have taken over and I don't think that we are turning back to printed paper anytime soon. Really ever. Now, instead of being the adult that grabs my coffee, sits in my chair, and gets my news from the daily printed paper, my reality is rolling over from my sleep, grabbing my phone, and consuming it via social media or alternative news outlets. Not my grandmother’s way, but this is the new digital actuality of news.



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