Print news media has been struggling for years to redefine how they do business in the digital age.  In the biggest evolution since the printing press, print media continues to change from a printing priority to a digital priority, or a split editorial team of print and digital priorities.  As the media redefines and catches up with technology and public expectations about their news, efficiencies have gained momentum as does the speed of news.

The result is, good or bad, news travels fast.  Faster than anyone could have imagined just a few years ago.

What has brought print news media to adopt this change is technology.  Yet they continue to struggle with monetizing the delivery of news.  Traditional print media ads were profitable and predictable for hundreds of years, yet they are now secondary to less profitable and less predictable digital ads.

So what are six things that changed the world for print media:

  1. Mobile devices are in the hands of all.  Why wait for the morning paper when the information is available now.
  2. Information is power and whoever delivers the news fastest yields that power, especially in ad sales.
  3. Print newspaper subscriptions keep decreasing, as do print ad sales.
  4. The average age of print newspaper subscribers is now about 70 years old.
  5. A newspaper is a recap of what you missed seeing on your smart phone as it happened.
  6. Members of the public are publishing the story on scene via social media faster the news media.

The changes with print media and digital media continue, yet there is one certainly.  The speed of news is getting faster, bad or good.