Traditional newspaper journalism is in a state of crisis and there have been several
attempts to overcome this. Many discourses have reiterated the triumphal march of a
digital revolution in newspaper journalism and anticipated the end of the print newspaper.
This moment calls for an in-depth analysis of reader habits of news consumption and use
in order to understand the audiences for journalistic output and their relationship with
the journalistic objects. In this study, we adopt a multi-method approach, integrating
(1) qualitative content analysis of student essays dealing with the physicality of printed
and online newspapers, (2) ethnographic observation of the use practices of readers
and (3) expert interview. The findings show that informants perceive print and online
newspapers as objects with which they have a different experience and highlight the
need to develop bridging strategies combining print and digital media in order to
overcome the crisis facing printed news media.
