Online Journalistic Services: Are Digital Newspapers Complementary to Traditional Press?

Abstract

The new online communication has had a considerable impact on the activities of the newspaper industry. As a result, analysis of the duality of journalism has aroused increasing interest. This chapter analyses the readers’ behavior in relation to digital and traditional media. We identify the main reading motivations and the behavior patterns in each medium. Besides, we examine the possible relationship between readers’ objectives for reading and the choice of each channel. The results confirm that the electronic and traditional channels are compatible, but suggest that it is necessary to take the process of differentiation in order to enhance this complementarity, meeting readers’ needs in different circumstances and combining effects to raise loyalty to a newspaper.