Figures released by the Newspaper Association of America show that the decline of newspapers is more rapid than previously thought, with total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunging 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006, the biggest drop in revenue since 1950, the year they started tracking annual revenue.
Online provides some solace for the dead-tree business, with internet ad revenue growing 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006, but a rate significantly lower than the 31.4% growth the year before, and not even close to replacing the losses from print. Online revenue now represents 7.5% of total newspaper ad revenues.
Newspapers do have a future, but as I wrote in November, we are yet to see a major consolidation of print in the United States. Declining revenues will ultimately force consolidation across print media in the United States, and many of those that fail to embrace change will be on borrowed time.
(via E&P)
Newspapers will prevail… but competitiveness is no comparison to online counterparts.
The internet > newspaper.
-Visit my site to make money online http://mikesmoneyclub.blogspot.com/
Yes, print is dead. I’ve been saying that since the other day.
Duncan - Was just looking at these numbers.
Had a feeling TechCrunch would have the story … and here you are
I bought two newspapers this week. Did I read them yet? No.
Now, if we can get everyone to stop printing everything they read on the Internet, we ‘might’ save a tree or two?
@Michael B ’s comment is why I still haven’t opened comments on our blog. Incredibly blatant comment spam.
For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t mind seeing TechCrunch change their comment policy … as long as they don’t require a log-in. Think that stops a lot of good dialog.
The handwriting is on the wall here, for sure. I’ve written a couple posts on the topic, “Newspapers are Dead”: http://therealmccrea.wordpress.....-part-two/
Its pretty easy to ban someone from wordpress comments, all arrington has to do is addd michael B’s IP do the blacklist and they wont show up anymore.
Please post a photo gallery with all your train wrecks.
We stopped subscribing because the Paper’s billing practices are deceptive and confusing.
@4 - Who prints what they read on the internet? If people do, wouldn’t they use the recycle bin when they dispose of it?
@6 - Many people (most in Australia) don’t have a static IP, so blocking an IP doesn’t always help.
I’m not at all surprised by these figures - we all knew it was coming. Why sift through a newspaper for news that matters to us when that news can find us
@9 re @6 –
Do content filtering… presumably the spams eater is already in effect on TC..
eg., in case ppl wonder why i need to tag .com into the required Name field,
it’s been because if i just use “113″, and not “113.com”, the post won’t show
up, regardless of comment content.. but, for the same comment content, but
with “113.com” instead of just “113″ in the “Name (required)” field, the post
will show up here.
That said, given so many TC readers are technical minded, why not TC just
enable OpenID verification (as an option)…
“living on borrowed time” great John Lennon track mate.
I don’t think print is dead as such but it will continue the decline but then stabilise. There is always a place for a newspaper I buy one when I need one whereas before I would have bought one everyday.
Duncan, please, differentiate between paid publications and free-to-every-letterbox local newspapers and newsletters. The latter are holding on or even growing.
Don’t you see that you guys are also responsible for this?
I select what I want to read and then read it online. I don’t have to buy the whole cow if I just want to eat the T-bone! Choice has become the readers number one priority, and newspapers days are numbered
I agree with No. 12, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, flat is the new up as they say. My biggest problem is that the design of a daily print publication vs. online is all wrong, news orgs need to differentiate the two to complement, not mirror each other. Use the web for constantly changing content, use the print for information worth saving and news that doesn’t work as well on the web, like large scale graphics, photographs, long form stories, etc. Print is definitely not dead though.
In addition to the bulkiness of a traditional newspaper, it’s already old news by the time it is printed and delivered. Reporters can upload a story to the internet immediately. If I can read the story on an RSS reader, that’s great. If it comes to my phone, so much the better. The Wichita Eagle newspaper in Kansas recently launched their .mobi site, and it’s a great example of a quick loading site meant for people to find breaking news fast (I am profiling it on my blog today).
the newspapers are losing their revenue to job boards, so why aren’t they the ones consolidating our industry?
I think print media has been very slow to move to digital the way some paddle boat companies were slow to move to steam ships, and it’s hurting them the way it hurt those companies back then. I do think smart entrepreneurs could potentially find a niche in helping newspapers and print media make the transition. I’ve met with tons of big print media companies and they never feel they need help. They think they can rely alone on brand online and we all know how that can go
Meanwhile, I think it’s very smart for blogs like TC, etc. to see big media like the NY Times as competitors and go after them.
I’m a former journalist who now works in marketing. Metro dailies (the ones in the most trouble) are part of my client base.
Across the board, three dynamics are pretty consistently hammering nails into the dailies’ collective coffin faster than might be occur otherwise:
* Despite talk about fundamental disruption in the business, there’s still an attitude that this is a storm to be ridden out rather than a complete sea change. Even when the folks at the top (owners, publishers) get it, there are many, many layers of upper and middle managers who don’t — and who are afraid of losing head count because that somehow diminishes their authority.
* Sales has been given increasing control of the organization. Mind you, sales are crucial — but it’s hard to find a group of folks less strategic than salespeople on commission.
* Too many lifers. When you get into key operational areas (marketing, product development, news management) you find a lot of people who’ve been in the daily news business their whole careers, which isn’t necessarily bad, but nor is it a hotbed of innovation. What’s more shocking is the number of people you run across who’ve been at the same paper for 15, 20 or 25 years.
How do you motivate students wanting to enter the journalism profession when the demise of their future employers are seemingly crashing down and morphing? This article provides good insight and examples of how to promote and instill entrepreneurialism and embrace your passion.
Check out this article from USC Journalism professor:
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/080325niles
Commentary: J-schools need to encourage and develop, not inhibit, students’ passion — not only for the favorite topics, but for the craft of journalism itself.
Nicely selected picture. I think that well represents the state of newspapers.
At first this all dismayed me, until I realized two things:
1. most of the stories I read are the same everywhere (eg from the AP)
2. by the time it’s reached the newspaper, I’ve already read it online
Given this, commons sense says it’s going the way of consolidation as they’re recycling the same crap anyway. BUtttttttttttttttttt and this is a big but, I hope the small papers with independent voices, human interest stories and local news pick up the slack and fill in the gaps.
It’s the content. The public will not buy the product they are selling.
- Biased, opinionated reporting.
- Selective viewpoints covered or ignored.
- Writers and Editors who represent a minority of American viewpoints.
- Agenda-driven writing and ideology-based content is the root if the issue.
- Anti-American, Anti-Tradition, Anti-Community and Anti-Success based writing are rampant and go against the very fabric of a majority of Americans nationally.
- The Editorial page starts on page 1 and runs to the backpage. This must change for the good of the product.
Owners and Stockholders of Print Media must embrace the truth about the product they produce before they can act to change it. Report the news without “perspective”, “insight”, or “agenda” and customers will purchase and support the paper. The same rules apply to all news outlets. Advertisers as well as subscribers will vote with their dollars.
“- Biased, opinionated reporting.
- Selective viewpoints covered or ignored.
- Writers and Editors who represent a minority of American viewpoints.
- Agenda-driven writing and ideology-based content is the root if the issue.
- Anti-American, Anti-Tradition, Anti-Community and Anti-Success based writing are rampant and go against the very fabric of a majority of Americans nationally.
- The Editorial page starts on page 1 and runs to the backpage. This must change for the good of the product.”
yeah man, thank god the internet is safe from all of that.
When they close shop they can dump their office equipment on Craiglist
To everyone who pronounces the demise of newspapers:
Newspapers ARE the news. All the broadcast media, blogs like this one, radio, and other forms of media get their stories from newspapers. Not just big ones, like the NYT or LAT, but small ones too. If these sources of news collapse, you will have nothing to talk about.
Newspaper revenue is decreasing, but they still earn 20% profit, which is way more than a lot of companies.
I do not think that over the next 10 years news papers have a future. They need to move to the web - so … news “papers” become news “web”. As new devices like the iPhone or the Amazon one (sorry … forgot the name) become more ubiquitous news will be not only delivered online but the news model will change. We already see it with news blogs and news on portals.
What I am afraid will not change is how irresponsible the press is in general. That will definitely remain the same.
no duh, so is pay phones,and yellow pages.
While I agree that Newspapers are heading for the ‘DeadPool’ pretty quickly.. if they change how they interact with readers then they could survive.
Its pretty obvious that all Daily Newspapers (in the UK that would be the Times / Telegraph / Guardian / Mail /Express / Financial Times et al) have a political slant. They need to start saying that more! they need to differentiate themselves from the rest. Make what they say interesting to there own readers.
I dont agree that print is dead though. People are soon going to get sick of looking at screens all day long, and need to rest there eyes doing something else. Reading print does help. However, I agree we need to save all these trees being knocked down. Either with 100% recyclable paper, or by having a plan in place to replace trees used for paper.
Newspapers and print need to have a future; they need to find out what it is and go after it!
“I agree we need to save all these trees being knocked down. Either with 100% recyclable paper, or by having a plan in place to replace trees used for paper.”
Oh, screw the trees already.
You do realize the roll of made for newsprint tree farms and pulp mills, right?
We’re not exactly culling old-growth redwoods for this stuff anymore.
The print news is just goind to get worse and unlikely to recover. Who have that much time to read 20+ pages. I would rather read what I want.
But the question is, is this really all Craig Newmark’s fault?
I found your blog entry while searching for “decline of newspapers” and, after reading it, would like to comment on your assumptions.
You noted that the increase in online ad revenue was not enough to support the decrease in print revenue. I disagree.
The print revenue has to be looked at from a larger perspective. First, the sheer cost of newsprint is about 60% of the overall cost incurred to print the newspaper today, so I have read. Second, the environmental cost has to be considered.
The variable cost to online ad revenue is minimal considering that almost all of the costs for news production go to staff and editorial, not web geeking. And, the web guys are certainly not as expensive as that newsprint.
So, it is my feeling that the online ad revenue increases are sufficient to keep up the organizations.
This is my dream for the future of newspapers: no trees cut down and everyone with a wafer-thin, foldable electronic newspaper that hooks up to a satellite, can be read anywhere and requires a subscription to the NY Times - just like the good old days. We are going to be there soon, folks.
Charles