Media Displacement Effect: Investigating the Impact of Internet on Newspaper Reading Habits of Consumers

Abstract

The emergence of internet has many effects on the availability of news and information. It expands the reach of news, information and discussion forums to the public and forces traditional news media to reorient themselves in competitive situations. The newspaper/print media companies have understood this trend and have come out with new plans. Most of them have developed their on-line portals or websites that provide news as well. This study has been conducted with a view to capture impact of Internet on changes in consumer behavior, with respect to reading news on internet. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase comprised of an exploratory research that gave the insight about the issues. It is followed through a detailed questionnaire to conduct the descriptive study. Target population considered was one who has Internet access. It was divided in two segments namely working professionals and students. The responses were collected through e-mail. It was found that Internet has not much affected the newspaper business. It has come out as complimentary to the newspapers. Further, Internet is found more popular in case of business/stock news, sports news and international news.