Is newspaper dying?

I’m teaching “Intro to Mass Communication” this semester and we just finished the chapter on newspaper. Most students indicated in class that they don’t read newspapers, and they don’t have a good idea whether or not newspaper is a dying media and a career they should consider. I said this to the class: newspaper, as a physical medium, may be dying; however, the contents of the paper are still in demand, but will be delivered via alternative means other than newsprint.

Statistics by Facebook regarding the most shared articles on Facebook in 2011 seem to substantiate my comments – among the top 40 most shared articles, 11 are from major newspapers such as New York Times and Washington Post.

It is also interesting to note that other than New York Times and Washington Post, a few major big news media dominate as the sources of these 40 articles – big names such as Yahoo and CNN. This only speaks to one thing – the demand for quality news contents remains strong, and may get even bigger as there will be more delivery channels – web portal, smartphone, social media, etc.