Influence of New Media on Print Newspaper Readership

Abstract

There is an assumption that the exposure of the contents of online news satisfies readers' need for information and slows down the drive for the print versions. It is alleged that through the development of technology online newspapers give certain values to the readers which their print counterparts do not; however, there is still more questions that need to be answered such as what really motivates the readers preference to online newspaper as compared to their print edition counterpart? This study aimed at examining the emerging readership shift brought by new media on print newspapers. The study was guided by the following specific objective: to explore what influences the readers towards new media. The study adopted Uses and Gratification theory. It has also tackled the work and debates of other researchers concerning the media industry. The findings of this study will be important to the Government and other institutions involved in the national policy formulation as the media sector is one of the major players in government policy formulation agenda. The study was conducted among the staff members of Kenya School of Government, in Nairobi, Mombasa, Baringo, Embu and Matuga that have a total population of 519. Descriptive survey method was employed in collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data because it involves watching and depicting the conduct or subject without influencing it in any capacity. The same method was used to administer questionnaire to a randomly selected sample of 217 newspaper readers. The targeted population for this study were KSG staff members. The study sample of 217 respondents used Krejcie and Morgan formula (1970), and the researcher employed both primary and secondary collection procedures. It employed descriptive statistics to analyse the data. The research found that majority of the respondents still prefer print newspaper version to online though the latter is gaining momentum. The study concluded that online newspaper version is becoming a threat to print newspaper. The researcher therefore recommended that the print newspaper industry should come up with a good strategy of ensuring that the two versions complement each other objectively. For online readers, the internet hotspots should be increase to ease the accessibility of the internet.  On further research areas, the study suggests that the discrepancy on the content of both newspaper versions should be amended.