When do we take newspapers off the ventilator?
Posted by Leanne Potts at 10/27/2009 12:31 PM 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: newspaper industry death
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: newspaper industry death
How do people who run newspapers get out of bed anymore?
The latest stats show daily newspaper circulation is at the lowest number it has been since before World War II when the industry began making circulation records public. Only 12.9 percent of the public buys a daily newspaper now, down from 31.1 percent in 1940.
Average daily circulation at the nation's newspapers fell 10.6 percent since last year.
And before you point to the fact that newspaper web sites are getting more traffic than ever, remember, no one pays for those page views. The newspapers are giving away their content online and getting bupkus for it. They haven't figured out a business model that supports online content. They can't sell ads against it effectively.
Newspaper advertising revenue is plummeting and layoffs continue. The NY Times, the third highest circulation paper in the nation, announced this week it's laying off 100 newsroom employees.
The situation is so bad that some newspapers are considering charging people to read their material, again. But how do you get people to pay for a product they've grown accustomed to getting for free?
Like I said, I don't know how newspaper editors keep going.
For those of who love newspapers, this has been painful to live through. What will the post-newspaper world look like?
The latest stats show daily newspaper circulation is at the lowest number it has been since before World War II when the industry began making circulation records public. Only 12.9 percent of the public buys a daily newspaper now, down from 31.1 percent in 1940.
Average daily circulation at the nation's newspapers fell 10.6 percent since last year.
And before you point to the fact that newspaper web sites are getting more traffic than ever, remember, no one pays for those page views. The newspapers are giving away their content online and getting bupkus for it. They haven't figured out a business model that supports online content. They can't sell ads against it effectively.
Newspaper advertising revenue is plummeting and layoffs continue. The NY Times, the third highest circulation paper in the nation, announced this week it's laying off 100 newsroom employees.
The situation is so bad that some newspapers are considering charging people to read their material, again. But how do you get people to pay for a product they've grown accustomed to getting for free?
Like I said, I don't know how newspaper editors keep going.
For those of who love newspapers, this has been painful to live through. What will the post-newspaper world look like?
And it's not just TV and the internet that's causing the problem. National papers are now printed by satellite transmission, so they're timely. I know many people who subscribe to the NY Times. The Times may be hurting, but it, in turn, is hurting the local papers.
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