The Importance of Electronics News Brand Trust: The Case of Online Newspapers in Indonesia

Introduction

Newspaper is considered as the world's information resources (Strebler, Robinson, & Heron, 1997) that has developed over the years. Originally, newspaper is produced in a print version, but the Internet is revolutionizing it (Nilssen, Bertheussen, & Dreyer, 2015) and the development of online newspapers increases so rapidly (Arikunto, 2010). The development of the Internet forced many companies to redefine how to reach and remain relevant to its target audience (Harden & Heyman, 2009). Some well-known brands such as Tribune Co. newspaper, New York Times, the Tucson Citizen, Boston and many popular newspaper brands in USA should close his business. Ranaweera and Prabhu (2003)found out that a decrease in audience is caused by several things, such as the change towards free news, failed model of alternative income, advertisers for online media is reinforced by the current economic crisis, changes in the production process of news and changes in the usage patterns of news. Besides, the Internet also plays a role in the decline of the traditional newspaper circulation. The Internet has changed the access, production and circulation of information (Shen, Wu, Chen, & Fang, 2016). Internet provides access speed that is not owned by traditional media. Internet makes everything easier. The development of the Internet is also supported by the development of a variety of media that can access the Internet directly, such as mobile phone, smartphone, and a variety of other media. The emergence of “net native” or “digital net” generation (Carrol, 1991) or the generation that grew and comfortable with the Internet environment makes an online newspaper preferred over the traditional one. Developments that trigger various online brands began to appear, either because of the development of communication, technology, or information (Morgan-Thomas & Veloutsou, 2013).

Online newspaper provides a variety of important benefits to readers. Some of the benefits of online newspaper is helping the increase in frequencies and create a platform for sharing information quickly across countries (Nilssen et al., 2015), supporting environmental perspective (Attaran, Divandari, & Adinov, 2012), and it is more interactive than the print media (Capaldo, Iandoli, & Ponsiglione, 2004; Cheng & Dainty, 2003). Chaston, Badger, and Sadler-Smith (1999), Explain that online use in the newspaper industry gives a speed for news to reach readers. A low cost of distributing information, a possibility for news updates constantly, and an opportunity to build a more direct contact and interaction with the users. Development of the Internet, like Web 2.0, allows people to instantly produce and disseminate news items online (Atakan-Duman & Ozdora-Aksak, 2014). Although online newspaper has many benefits, but the emergence of online newspaper will be cannibals for the print newspaper (Shen et al., 2016; Shnayder, van Rijnsoeve, & Hekkert, 2016).

Trust becomes an important part in the online environment. Trust is one of the success factors that can enhance the competitive advantage in electronic commerce environment. The increase of confidence by 75% occurs in the use of social media (Eldeman Trust, 2012). Managers should be able to increase customer confidence in the brand. Some literature explain that consumers’ trust in the brand is caused by several things, such as satisfaction, experience, perceived value, perceived risk, service quality and reputation (Benedicktus, 2011; Delgado-Ballester & Munuera-Aleman, 2001; Eastlick, Lotz, & Warrington, 2006; Ha & Perks, 2005; Harris & Goode, 2004; McKnight, Choundhury, & Kacmar, 2002b; Sahin, Zehir, & Kitapci, 2011; Singh & Sirdeshmukh, 2000; Tanrikulu & Celilbatur, 2013). The increase of trust will be able to influence the behavior of customer loyalty (Gommans, Krishnan, & Scheffold, 2001; Harris & Goode, 2004; Sahin et al., 2011).