Amy McDonald @ The Times

What age group does the newspaper seek to target?

Do more people read print copies or access the paper online?

How far have newspapers come in regards to becoming internet-friendly over the course of your career as a journalist?

What has the Gainesville Times done to become more digital?

What has the Times done to be competitive as TV seems to take over news?

Where do you see the industry in 15 years?

What improvements do you think can be made to appeal to younger audiences? (In all aspects?)

What has created this gap in newspaper interest in the short span of just a generation or so?

Do you think every step possible is being taken to be technologically advanced?

What is the biggest challenge newspapers and their employees face in surviving for the duration of the digital age?

Responses to questions are listed below:

1.       Newspapers seek to target all age groups so we can have the highest readership possible, but I would say we are making greater strides to reach younger readers now since they traditionally are the ones who read newspapers less.

2.       It’s hard to say exactly because the print papers can be read by multiple people, so it’s not a 1-for-1 comparison with online numbers.

3.       They have become a lot more Internet-friendly, seeking to reach readers through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and videos on our website. More and more effort continues to be put into online as more readers head there for information.

4.       The Times has used all of the social media tools listed in the previous answer to reach readers and produces strong weekly videos. We use Google Analytics to track which stories are being read the most and where the Web traffic is coming from (Facebook, Twitter, mobile, desktop, etc.).

5.       I don’t feel like TV has taken over news. I would say it’s more of the Internet taking it over. We have beefed up our website and social media presence with the efforts of getting information to readers as quickly as possible. We want them to trust us as the primary source for their news.

6.       It will still be here, but it will just be even further tilted toward online than print. There will always be people who want to hold the paper in their hands and not deal with technology to read the news of the day. But further movement toward the Internet will be part of the equation.

7.       We can cover more of the events and entities that interest them.

8.       It comes back to the overall society, which wants information quickly, easily and for free. Once people have information at their fingertips, they don’t want to have to pay for it or make a large effort to seek it out.

9.       With the technology, information, solutions and resources (both financial and personnel-wise) we have, yes. Much of the high expectations people have of newspapers isn’t feasible because often those same people want to pay nothing for it.

10.   The biggest challenge is being innovative enough to find the ways to reach readers where they’re at and doing such a good job that they understand the value of the work we’re presenting to them.