Interesting Things to Know - Brief Intro to Newspaper Industry of Washington DC

Newspaper Industry in Washington DC had started in early 1830s, when a popular press called Penny Press started selling inexpensive papers thorough the street vendors. As the industry grew into profitable and indispensable business, "Yellow Journalism" started in late 1800.

From the crippling Great Depression to war time years, Newspapers in Washington DC used to monitor closely and circulate the news thereby increasing its revenues and profits.

Editor and Publisher was a major trade journal during those times. It was the time when the Newspaper Industry saw the boom since its inception. Now, there are about 1400 daily newspapers which include the famous Wall Street Journal, USA Today and New York Times.

Since post Great Depression, the Newspaper Industry has been suffering with the worst financial crisis. Due to Internet, the people in US have got used to getting news and information for free.

The traditional newspaper industry, unable to deal with prices had to face a significant setback. With the plummeting revenues in advertising, many newspapers were forced to shut down, and few of them declared bankruptcy, like The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Minneapolis star tribune and Rocky Mountain News.

In order to cope up with these losses, few newspapers companies went online. Some of the popular newspaper companies that went online are USA Today.com, The Wall Street Journal Online, and New York Times etc.

As the young Americans spend more time online, Newspaper Website Readership increased. This led to the transition of traditional print Newspaper industry to Online Newspaper.

In few cases newspapers turned into a complete web only production. The Christian Science Monitor was the first national daily newspaper to move completely online. However, due to the presence of big search engines like Google, Yahoo and AOL, Newspaper Industry in Washington DC and other parts of America will face stiff competition.

Nothing lasts forever, but the US Congress is still trying other means to save the Newspaper Industry. If everything goes electronic in Washington DC and in the rest of the word, we might see a day where the feel of newsprints on our fingers might sound alien.