How Technological Advances Have Impacted the Areas You Are Focusing On

Impacts of Technology

‘A broader version of conventional literacy, which enables, all visual, aural and digital forms, seeking to enable people to become thoughtful producers and interpreters of media'. - Peter Fraser. Looking at this quote I can see that the impact of technology in the magazine market has come a long way which has allowed companies to produce more appropriate products for their target audience. 

Due to the technology forever changing it is important that the print industries stay in date with the modern technology so they can produce the best possible products which would appeal to their target audience.I Believe that digital technology has undeniably had a huge impact on the print industry. Publishers are ow being forced to review their whole image and expand into new areas in order not to be left behind by this new digital era. ‘People tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in five to ten years.’ - J. C. R. Licklider, 1965. 

One example of this expansion is the large increase in digital versions of newspapers online. The physical sales of newspapers have declined so much over the past few years because people can easily attain them without leaving their house of paying a penny. As at first people could manage to get this content for free its forced the publishers to add in a new way to buy them. Instead of buying them individually you can buy a subscription so that confirms profit and sales for the publishers. This goes for the same as magazines as the physical sales of magazines is constantly dropping. This may of been the case anyway but the impact of technology has allowed magazine publishers the chance to expand and sell their magazines online.  

One of the biggest technological advances is the introduction of Apple’s iPad. This device allows consumers to download magazines straight to their device in a matter of seconds through a couple clicks. This feature allows people to view content much easier and quicker and cuts out the costs of production and material wastes. This digital version of magazines/newspapers open the door to a variety of new possibilities such as links to related websites, video content, music and even live streaming all things that paper just cannot provide.

Magazines also get a lot of their revenue through advertisements but with the growth of technology is that the Internet has allowed very specifically targeted advertising often for free or a very low price. This means that magazines lost a lot of revenue from investors who wanted to advertise their product and so many struggled financially. They again forced to re think their business models differently and advertise themselves differently offering new deals to companies for advertising and many worked harder on creating a more detailed and in depth audience profile to make their publication seem more desirable to an advertiser. 

Also the fall in sales of physical copies has lead to a decrease in the need for printing companies. This means that many have gone out of business or have had to make employees redundant in order to downsize. On the other hand the expansion into digital world has created a lot of jobs in other areas such as computing and web designing. The reduction of the printing industry has however put in danger the traditional skill of printing and many are afraid it will be lost forever.

Even with magazine companies trying there best to staying alive by adapt to the technological changes it still seems that the online additions of the magazines are slowly killing of all the print publications. As loyal customers who frequently like to read a certain magazine can now purchase the magazine at a cheaper rate online and have it on their tablet or phone. As of this it means that these people can subscribe to the company and therefore they don't even have to leave their home. As of this it means that the sales of the companies print products are starting to decline and many companies have decided to sell all of their products online now. 

I believe that the impact of technology in the printing industry has left a negative impact in the sense of the amount of jobs lost and the danger of the whole industry being out dated. But as a whole the impact of technology has changed the way of media distribution and has endless possibilities for it to grow and continue to be hugely important industry worldwide.