Surviving digital disruption: Ghanaian newspapers’ response to digitalisation

Abstract

The impact of digitalisation on journalism is a global concern manifesting differently in various media systems. This paper explored how digitalisation affects newspapers in Ghana and newspapers’ strategic responses to the phenomenon. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with news editors and journalists working with four newspapers; Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, Daily Guide and the Republic Press, this study revealed that digitalisation’s impact on newspapers is mixed and uneven. Although the internet’s wide availability enhances the speed of news production and reach, news consumption has shifted online, reducing newspaper sales and exposing them to online information disorder. In response, newspapers are producing multi-media content for traditional and digital media. By producing and distributing content via digital and print media, newspapers have demonstrated a capacity for harnessing technical convergence, but they have not shown the ability to fully harness the cultural and economic dimensions of media convergence. Also, newspapers have become multi-modal content producers without the preparation that must precede such major organisational transformations. The strategic responses of newspapers to digitalisation have implications for media regulation as it encourages conglomeration and escalates the concentration of media power.