In doing research on how traditional newspapers are performing in the United States, I came across this article – interesting stuff. In summary, audience shifts from newspaper to online for everything from local news to classifieds has had a devastating effect on bottom line revenues. Some of this revenue loss is being offset by newspaper’s own online vehicles, but nowhere near enough to offset massive revenue losses. The article posted earlier today about the Charlotte Observer’s planned October layoffs are proof positive that this July 2008 article was dead on. Read on…
JULY 22, 2008
What’s black, white and has red ink all over?
It has been a rough time for the newspaper industry in the US, with a series of layoffs against a backdrop of falling revenues. Consumers still read newspapers, but the rise of online news and opinion sites and blogs has given them additional reading choices.
One fresh indicator that print newspaper readers are shifting to news sites comes from the Readership Institute. Although two-thirds of Internet users surveyed in July 2008 said they still used print newspapers about as much as they did before they started visiting news sites, more than one-quarter said they were reading print less as a result, and that figure has grown during the past 5 years.
