Impacts of the Internet on Newspapers in Europe

The contributions in this special issue show that the internet has several and contradictory impacts on newspapers. The internet intensifies competition on mature newspaper markets, but also offer newspaper publishers additional means to reinforce their competitive position. The way in which publishers use these new opportunities results in the ‘mediatization’ of the internet. The corresponding trend of the ‘internetization’ of traditional media is less strong and clear-cut. One consequence of these developments is that online news media, and in particular online newspapers, are subordinate and subservient to print newspapers, and therefore still in search of their own online role at the beginning of the 21st century.