How YouTube and CPM are Changing Newspaper Websites

I would like to address the change I have seen in the websites of newspapers recently. Unfortunately, with the emergence of YouTube, journalists are now reduced to simple collectors of entertaining YouTube clips instead of being mediators of important news. I can’t count the number of times that journalists post articles in seemingly serious newspapers with the sole purpose of entertaining. Whether it’s top 10 lists of teammates fighting in sports (which I read yesterday), a collection of funny George W. Bush quotes, or celebrities who got a make-over, these posts have nothing to do with news and can be pulled out any rainy day when there is nothing else interesting happening in the world.

Another trend on newspaper websites is that editors are going to more and more extremes in their attempts to generate advertising revenues. As if someone did not know how to scroll down in a window, editors now split up an article in two or three web pages instead of collecting it in one long article. Clearly, the sites generate revenues on pay-per-impression (CPM) and a reader who reads the whole article will now visit three web pages with according revenue generation instead of just one web page. This is very annoying for the reader, but is unfortunately a growing trend in a world run by advertising money and desires to entertain.