But there are still opportunities for newspapers to dominate content within the wireless Internet space, publishing to next-generation mobile phones and portable wireless devices. Indeed, the local-market radio business would appear to be an easy target for some serious competition, because that industry has been slow to react to coming competition from Internet radio. Newspapers moving into the local Internet radio space, should they take it seriously, could significantly damage local radio stations in several years. National Internet radio Internet radio as we know it today isn't a huge threat to local radio.
Users select a channel and hear streaming audio over the Web.
Because of the growing ubiquity of Internet access, especially in office buildings where workers typically have high-bandwidth network connections, the PC increasingly replaces the desktop radio for playing background music during office hours. Many office buildings prevent quality radio reception, so the networked PC makes an ideal substitute. Nothing but music punctuated by commercials doesn't seem to get users to stick. Local stations' lazy reaction Of course, local radio stations can merely stream their broadcast signals onto the Web, and a minority of the industry has done that. But traffic on Web-ified radio broadcasts has been dismal so far.