The title of the article mentions "Fracking" a term that has made accessing new sources of crude oil possible that eventually led to a drop in oil prices. What technological breakthrough could affect journal pricing?

There are a few answers.

Explanation:

The rise of social media: the prominence of some networks have led to people presenting their own news. This means it's way more likely for people to find out about an important event because of an actual witness of the event, who may have recorded it on his/her phone or Tweeted about it right away. Expenses: even renowned newspapers have now moved almot completely to online journalism. Most readers prefer it this way, too, because it's faster and usually free. In addition, printing thousands of physical journals is expensive, so news websites are now maintained through ad revenue and premium subscriptions. Freelance journalism: many reliable news sources are now freelance and published through the Internet. Because they do not depend on the printing expenses, groups of journalists get together and create their own blogs or magazines and, as the more formal news websites, probably rely on the ad revenue.