Newspaper Industry and It's Challenges in the 21st Century

New challenges have been brought on here in the age of the internet where everything is at our fingertips. When we look at breaking news it seems more and more people are finding that information on a smartphone app instead of going to a newsstand for a physical paper. In years without the online world newspapers were the only way to know about current events and local happenings around a given community. One thing that seems to now be obsolete are cartoon images you would find daily that were usually peanuts themed and coined the term “funnies” because the comic strip was meant to be a comedy toward the audience who is reading. These would often come in Saturday issues over the weekend to coincide with the cartoons that usually came on TV during that time. The difference between news then and now is that you had to wait a day before you were aware of anything new going on. Today we look and see things instantly without a delay that come through social media outlets and inform us.

The newspaper has been around since the 1800s at least but the Panhandle did not get the Globe-News until the 1900s when the first Amarillo paper was printed and released to the public. Articles would start out to be small until the staff at the newly established press office increased which then brought us into expanding stories to cover a variety of topics and community events. When people walk in to the bars and local coffee shops this is usually what is read in the mornings while getting ready to go to work or start the day with a new perspective on life as a whole.

Advertisements usually would consist of local businesses and stores looking to get the word out so the public knows about something special happening within a given time frame. There was a time when a radio broadcaster would look through numerous pages to find something to cover in a break on the air so it look a little longer to get the word out then it does in today’s world. I grew up blocks from a machine that had daily papers from both Amarillo and Canyon and what’s called a thrifty nickel. These papers were usually small in size and had mostly information about a local business or something similar to that.

There are times when I miss getting to go put coins in a machine and grab a new paper for the day. Just recently Amarillo Globe News decided to discontinue the Saturday issue and will be cutting down on the amount of content that is in the physical paper. When I first went to the radio to broadcast as a student my college newspaper was there to serve as a resource for show prep. Things have been mostly online today and a DJ usually reads a virtual version of a story on a website.

In the news media today breaking news stories are always known instantly and in the days you had to wait for a new issue of the Sunday paper you were aware once this came out.

Let‘s remember this medium for making the news what it is still today even with the changes and advances through generations.

-Tristan