It’s True: News Aggregators Are Spelling Doom for Newspapers

Outsell Research, a research and advisory firm devoted to the publishing and information industries, just released their “News Users 2009” report, the results of which suggest that–surprise!–many readers turn to aggregator sites before heading to the print paper proper.

Here are the numbers:

-19% of people accessed Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL News for news in 2009. 10% did so in 2006.

-6%  go directly to newspaper websites, as opposed to 3% in 2006

-44% scan headlines on Google “without accessing the newspaper sites”

Clearly, this augments the feeling of doom surrounding print papers, but what does this imply for their online counterparts? Well, basically, it means that they’re not going to make money either. If online papers follow the Grey Lady’s lead and start charging for their content, then users have no incentive to pay for bite-sized pieces they can snatch from an aggregator.

Also, clearly, this doesn’t necessarily mean that online newspapers will cease to exist; without their existence, the aggregators would have nothing to grab from. However, it does add significant weight to the debate about the purpose of newspapers (recently furthered by Dave Egger’s mammoth Panorama). Bite-sized new pieces may have a greater place in aggregators, while news producers may want to focus on long-form and investigative journalism.

Either way, this new research highlights the fact that newspapers will have to create varied and innovative fee structures for the future. Because one thing’s certain: someone’s going to have to pay.

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