Newspaper readership is the people who read or are thought to read a particular newspaper. Decline in newspaper circulation and readership does not mean newspaper readership is aging. In fact, declining newspaper circulation and readership is happening at the same time with aging newspaper readership. Looking at the macro vision of aging newspaper readership, general social factors suggest that aging population and new way of newspaper reading by young people (i.e. reading online newspaper articles, reading free newspapers). In micro term, cohort effect, new reading style of non print news articles and cost of newspaper are three of the reasons why newspaper readership is aging. Aging of newspaper readership has impacts on societies and which aging readership has relationship to voter participation.
Long-term Cohort effect and newspaper readership
Cohort define people according to their birth of year (i.e. 1980-1989, 1990–1999). Cohorts are affected by age and the period of time that the groups grow. These make different cohorts have their only characteristics, and this is called as cohort effects. Cohort effect is further declining and aging newspaper readership.
According to the characteristics of young cohorts, their readership level is lower than other older cohort groups.[8] Newspaper market does not target only the older cohort, young cohorts are also the targeted consumers of newspapers.[8] Comparing older cohorts to the younger, the way how the young cohort groups socialized is different, there is a negative cohort effect that the younger tend to read less.[8] In term of aging population, previous cohort will be die out and replaced by the younger cohorts. As the average newspaper reading of the younger cohorts is low, newspaper readership aging at the same time with the older cohorts.[8] The newspaper readership gap between young cohorts and the older cohorts is widened.
Newspaper readership decline as less young people read newspaper. Even older cohorts remain the habit of reading newspaper but the amount of them is decreasing as they are aging. Average age of reading newspaper increase because of this cohort and created the result that newspaper readership is aging.
Online news readership and newspaper readership[edit]
The Web becomes one of the main resources for receiving information.[9] Online news readership is increasing as the newspaper readership decreasing. New technologies such as computers, cell phones and tablets play the major role in aging newspaper readership . Online news cost less compare to newspapers.[10] The young cohorts which assumed to replace the older cohorts on newspaper readership have shift to access online news.[11] The competition in Web and other metro markets affect newspaper readership in terms of aging and declining.[11] One notice of how internet/Web impact readership to be aging is that, domestic households with internet access are more likely to end newspaper subscriptions.[11] This phenomenon is even vivid in urban/city areas than the rural areas because of stable and high-speed broadband service.[11]
Advertising and newspaper readership[
Organizations are looking forward to new advertising way that new companies/organizations are advertising through mobile apps and internet in order to make benefits. As this trend is at its beginning, newspaper needs new advertising role.
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The impact of ageing newspaper readership
Political participation among young cohort
Political participation decline as newspaper readership aging. Civic awareness and democratic values are weakening as the newspaper readership aging because of the decrease of reading newspaper.[8] Media in general highlight the famous politicians and their affairs which is different from the traditional role that playing by the newspapers.[8] More and accurate political information gain and maintain by newspaper readers, they are more able to compare and contrast political issues compare to those who gain political information from TV.[8] At the same time, TV viewers are more likely to vote according to the outlook of the candidates and the images created by TV.[8]

Knowledge gap between social classes
People with lower socio-economic status receive information slower than people with higher socio-economic status.[8] People with lower SES receive information slower because they are less educated compared to people with higher SES; they have less time to spend on reading information (they spend more time on working to maintain living quality), have restricted from some information that the high SES have the right or easily access to, and less access to information. Young consumers of the newspaper are people with lower socio-economic status, they read less, spend less time on reading newspaper and require smaller amount of information compare to the older consumers.[8] As the people with lower SES reduce time to read newspapers, their social/political knowledge will decrease as the same time which widened the knowledge gap between people with higher SES and lower SES.[8] People with lower SES tend to gain information from TV, but the information bias to the entertainment than accurate information which make people lower SES learn poorly.
An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, which exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.
Going online created more opportunities for newspapers, such as competing with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news in a more timely manner. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers, are also seen by many in the newspaper industry as strengthening their chances of survival.[1] The movement away from the printing process can also help decrease costs.
Online newspapers are much like hard-copy newspapers and have the same legal boundaries, such as laws regarding libel, privacy and copyright,[2] also apply to online publications in most countries, like in the UK. Also in the UK the Data Protection Act applies to online newspapers and news pages,[3] as well as the PCC rules in the UK. But the distinction was not very clear to the public in the UK as to what was a blog or forum site and what was an online newspaper. In 2007, a ruling was passed to formally regulate UK based online newspapers, news audio, and news video websites covering the responsibilities expected of them and to clear up what is, and what isn't, an online publication.[4]
News reporters are being taught to shoot video[5] and to write in the succinct manner necessary for the Internet news pages. Many are learning how to implement blogs and the ruling by the UK's PCC should help this development of the internet. Some newspapers have attempted to integrate the internet into every aspect of their operations, i.e., reporters writing stories for both print and online, and classified advertisements appearing in both media; others operate websites that are more distinct from the printed newspaper. The Newspaper National Network LP is an online advertising sales partnership of the Newspaper Association of America and 25 major newspaper companies.
E-paper (sometimes called radio paper or just electronic paper) is a portable, reusable storage and display medium that looks like paper but can be repeatedly written on (refreshed) - by electronic means - thousands or millions of times. E-paper will be used for applications such as e-books, electronic newspapers, portable signs, and foldable, rollable displays. Information to be displayed is downloaded through a connection to a computer or a cell phone, or created with mechanical tools such as an electronic "pencil". There are a number of different technologies being developed: Xerox, in partnership with 3M, has created an e-paper called Gyricon that is expected to be marketed in the not-distant future and Lucent, in partnership with a company called E Ink, is working on a device (also called E Ink) that is expected to be available within the next few years. Both of these technologies enable a black (or other color) and white display; Philips is working on a type of e-paper that will be full-color, but say that the product is at least 10-15 years away.
The Gyricon version consists of a single sheet of transparent plastic, containing millions of tiny bichromal (two color) beads in oil-filled pockets. Text and images are displayed through a rotation of the beads that occurs in response to an electrical impulse: a full rotation displays as black or white, and a partial rotation displays as gray shades. Like traditional paper, Gyricon has - and needs - no lighting component.
Lucent's E Ink device uses electronic ink and combines thin, plastic, flexible transistors withpolymer LEDs (light-emitting diodes) to create what are called smart pixels. The process involved - which is not dissimilar to traditional printing processes - uses silicon rubber stamps to actually print tiny (as small as those for the Pentium III processor) computer circuits onto the surface. E Ink uses electronic ink for display: a liquid plastic substance consisting of millions of tiny capsules filled with light and dark dyes that change color - charged dye particles move either up or down within the capsules - when exposed to an electric charge. According to Paul Drzaic, the director of display technologies, prototypes of the device have been running on watch batteries. The E Ink technology has been used for retail signs.
Neither the Lucent/E Ink version nor the Gyricon version require a constant power source; the initial charge creates the display, which then remains fixed until another charge is applied to change it. Low power demand is an important consideration for a technology that is intended to - at least partially - supplant a power-independent, standalone application like paper. The challenge involved in creating viable e-paper is to develop a material that has the desirable characteristics of traditional paper in addition to its own intrinsic benefits (such as being automatically refreshable). Like traditional paper, e-paper must be lightweight, flexible, glare-free, and affordable, if it is to gain consumer approval. Developers of both the competing e-papers claim to have accomplished most of these qualities in their products. The first e-paper products will be Gyricon-based: portable, reusable pricing signs for stores that can be changed instantly through a computer link; the first Gyricon-based electronic newspaper is expected to be available within the next 3 years.