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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Figure 1. Competition, monopoly or lack of newspapers in regional newspaper
regions.
Not all bad news
However, there are also positive sides to this picture. Jane B. Singer (2001) and
Currah (2009) suggest that regional and local newspapers are most likely to survive
the digital crisis due to their functionality in the community and their fundamental role
as a source for need to know public-affairs information.
In their analyses of British and American newspapers Quinn (2005) and Thurman &
Herbert (2008) reach similar conclusions. As did Lin, Salwen, Garrison & Driscoll
(2005) who analysed many case studies, and conclude: ‘the rapidly evolving state of
online newspapers can be characterized by considerable experimentation with
content, technologies, and distribution […] the result is frequent changes and oftenradical
site redesigns’.
Still, numerous case studies (Singer 2003; Killebrew, 2005; Dupagne & Garrison,
2006) show that regional media feel that they are forced into the direction of
multimedia and cross-media publishing as an answer to a changing audience, the rise
of digital technology and the long-term economic setback. The term multimedia refers
to being presence with different media on different platforms; cross-media
publications go beyond this in their ambition to create synergy between the media
through cooperation. According to Jenkins (2006), extension (broadening media
scope), synergy (profit from control over the wide range of media outings), and
franchising (same content, different product) are pushing media industries into an
acceptance of convergence.
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