Newspapers As We Know Them Are Toast
March 28th, 2008
Earlier this month we reported on how the newspaper industry has lost its future audience to the Internet.
It gets worse.
In the last year, the newspaper industry has experienced the worst ad revenue decline in its history, according to the Newspaper Association of America.
Total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006. This is the biggest decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures nearly sixty years ago.
Total advertising revenue in 2007 — including online revenue — decreased 7.9% to $45.3 billion compared to the prior year.
Newspapers as we know them are toast. Most people now get their news via the Internet and Craigslist has killed the classified market.
Newspapers are going to have to radically change, or they will be toast.
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March 28th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
I don’t think many newspapers will survive. In my dealings with newspaper folk, I find that most of them don’t even know what RSS is and don’t understand it’s a threat. Besides, even if some of them do make an amazing turn around and implement some great online strategy, they are just another new market entrant in an online industry that already has established players (who may or may not be 2 geeks in a garage). Sorry guys, your already too late.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm
If newspapers fail to survive, then where are Google, Yahoo! and thousands of bloggers going to get their news for free? Nearly all of the news — international, national, local, hyperlocal — on the Web comes from newspapers and allied organizations. The newspaper industry’s big mistake was remaining in the Associated Press and allowing to link and repurpose without compensating the content owners.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:42 am
Leigh - you raise a good point, but I’d guess that much of your local paper comes from news syndicates, and these are already indexed directly by Google.
The big question for me is how local news will ultimately get covered.
March 31st, 2008 at 3:13 pm
James,
In regards to local news coverage what about the local TV station affiliates (those who have news divisions) and their station websites?
March 31st, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Al - don’t you think that local affiliates are going to face the same pressure? Aren’t you watching a lot more video on the Internet and less television?