morning lineup firegeezer on 24 Jun 2008 07:58 am
Morning Lineup - June 24
One of the themes that we have been visiting over the past few months is the rapid shifting of news and information sources for the ultimate consumer (you).
To re-cap, with the mobility of television news crews and the spontanaety of internet websites, greater numbers of people are going directly to their televisions and their computers to get the latest news reports as well as seeking out in-depth and background articles for anything. And we are seeing a gradual merging of tv news onto the web for a combined information resource.
This is leaving the so-called print media withering away on the desert with little hope of revival. News magazines are virtually a thing of the past already. The speed at which information can be disseminated on the web has made print publications like Time and Sports Illustrated redundant, not to mention the cost comparisons to read them.
Nobody’s buying
The printed newspapers are suffering as well. It turns out that their health is even worse than people realized. The entire news industry was shocked the other day when the latest figures came out on ad space sales in the newspapers.
Selling advertising is the life’s blood of the printed news business. The reader’s purchase price is merely an assist in the cost of delivering the newspaper to the home or newsstand. But the advertisers are following their targeted audiences into the newer regions of readership and spending less and less on print advertising.
Last year the newspapers’ advertising revenue dropped by 8% leading to rounds of layoffs and product reductions. But they were unprepared for this year’s results announced recently. So far this year, ad sales have dropped by 12% with the month of May showing a 15% decline. “Decline” isn’t really the word for it. “Collapse” is more accurate.
There is understandably a panic in the newspaper boardrooms because their only real source of revenue isn’t just dropping, but it’s leaving permanently. A few forward-thinking newspapers like the Washington Post have been actively moving their resources onto their websites in a deliberate attempt to keep their readership close. They are doing a good job of it, but many of them have been left at the gate.
The San Francisco Chronicle is reportedly losing $1 million a week. That is almost incurable unless they make a drastic change in the way they deliver the news (and win back their lost customers, which isn’t likely). The McClatchy chain (Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and others) has announced plans to layoff an additional 1,400 employees leaving them with a workforce 20% smaller than at the beginning of last year.
Tomorrow we will try to look and see what’s ahead for the print-on-paper business. But this morning, we had better get this equipment checked out. I’ll make sure that the coffee gets going.
