Det papperslösa frukostbordet - En undersökning om den tryckta dagstidningens framtid
As revenues from newspaper advertising plummet and their readers loyalty erode, the need to understand newspapers' changing environment and the actors involved in this change is growing in importance. Evidence is the entire industry is entering into a restructuring phase and that this restructuring is driven by the rapid consumer adaption of internet media.In this thesis I elaborate on "how the Internet is affecting the conditions for value creation in printed newspapers" and "how the Internet is affecting the conditions for other actors involved in the printed newspaper's value creation". These two questions land us in the bigger question of "Does the Internet act as a compliment or a substitute to the printed newspaper ".To answer these questions the printed newspaper is represented as the actor in the middle of content producers, advertisers and consumers. It is in its role as a means of distribution and as a co-ordinating force that we study the value creation of the printed newspaper. The empirical base of this thesis is a qualitative participant observation where the author during a period of time interacted and collected data from the open discussion in blogs by several of the industry's top influentials combined with material from seminars and reports on the current state of media. By conducting value network analysis on this material, this thesis reveals several changes in conditions for both actors and relations surrounding the newspaper. The thesis concludes that the value creation of the printed newspaper is severely challenged by the new media. At the same time, the Internet brings several new interesting opportunities to the actors surrounding the newspaper which makes the position of the printed newspaper weaker. I also conclude that the Internet in several ways acts as a substitute instead of a compliment, which weakens the prospect for a healthy future for the printed newspaper.