Why Newspapers’ Shrinking Circulation Isn’t All Bad (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Media Memo ^ | October 27, 2009 | Peter Kafka

[abb]

No surprise that Americans are dropping their newspaper subscriptions, as a new batch of numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations showed yesterday. But before you file this under “death of newspapers”, do ponder this for a second: Declining circulation might not be the worst news in the world.

Tough times have forced many papers to rethink their circulation strategies. An obvious conclusion: Much of the money publishers were spending to print and deliver dead trees has gone to waste. New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell.

That’s a tactic, not a strategy, but in the near-term it might work.

In its last quarter, for instance, the New York Times (NYT), saw its daily circulation drop by more than 7%, but saw circulation revenue jump 6.7%, due to price increases. Last spring a single copy of the Times at a newsstand jumped from $1.50 to $2.00, and a Sunday Times now costs a staggering $6. But people are buying them.

Meanwhile, News Corp. (NWS), which owns the Wall Street Journal as well as this Web site, has been steadily increasing WSJ pricing. And circulation revenue is up at the McClatchy (MNI) and Media General (MEG) chains.

Again, the industry can’t shrink its way to recovery. There are fewer people paying for news — on or offline — than there have been in decades, and there’s no way to paint that as a positive. But the people who still subscribe to papers value them, and it’d be foolish not to capitalize on that. Editor & Publisher:

There are several reasons as to why circulation keeps dropping, aside from former readers who have kicked the print edition to the curb. Publishers have been purposely pulling back on certain types of circulation, including hotel, employee and third-party sponsored copies. No longer are they distributing newspapers to the outer reaches of the core market. The cost of delivery and the cost of materials have forced publishers to scale back.

Another shift has occurred: volume has taken a back seat to dollars.

Several major newspapers across the country have aggressively hiked prices of single-copy and home-delivered papers in search of circulation revenue and a renewed focus on loyal readers. Circulation is guaranteed to go down as prices go up, but publishers have opted to wring more revenue from readers as advertisers keep their coffers closed.

[abb]

De Nile: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile

De Nile is a major north-flowing river in Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world.

Denial: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial

Denial is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence.

[abb]

ping

[Red Badger]

It’s saves trees.................

[abb]

http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/10/26/daily17.html?surround=lfn
Chronicle print circulation plummets 25 percent, while web page views soar

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/27/BUDV1AAV94.DTL
Chronicle’s strategy shift starts to pay off

http://www.slate.com/id/2233605/pagenum/all/
This Obama-Fox War Ain’t Nothin’

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=139963
What NBC Gave Up in Ad Pricing for ‘Leno’ Prime-Time Show
Ad Age Chart Details Difference in 30-Second Spot Prices in ‘09 vs. ‘08

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116156
Publicis Reports ‘Most Terrible’ Results, Claims It Is Becoming An ‘All-Digital Agency’

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=116101
Fade To Red: Newspaper Circ Declines Accelerate

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
Daily circulation numbers for McClatchy papers starting to come in

[Ronbo1948]

I deny denial!

[abb]

[Mr. K]

"New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell"

That's LOGIC!

Liberal logic that is...

[SmokingJoe]

“New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell. “

Yeah, like that would work. Charge more for a product who's demand is dying.

“That’s a tactic, not a strategy, but in the near-term it might work.”

He just said it was a strategy in the last paragraph.

“In its last quarter, for instance, the New York Times (NYT), saw its daily circulation drop by more than 7%, but saw circulation revenue jump 6.7%, due to price increases”

Let's see how long that bump in revenue lasts. That price increase will only lead the an even faster fall in circulation, which will in turn lead to smaller revenues and profits.

[Red Badger]

There ain’t many trees there.................

[Texas resident]

Aren’t they doing that with public transportation as well? Fewer busses/subways and higher fares.

[equalitybeforethelaw]

I think we need to do some due diligence: what is the carbon footprint of a newspaper delivered to your front door? I do not know the answer, but believe it to be large. How can we continue to destroy our planet by buying newspapers - cancel all subscritions (especially NYT, WaPo, Trib, Vanity Fair, Esq,...) Save the planet!!!

[Hacklehead]

Its not shrinking, it’s just more “selective”.

[abb]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/oct/27/digital-media-stevejobs
Why Steve Jobs could be a saviour for media companies

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/business/media/27mag.html?ref=media
Forbes Magazine Plans More Layoffs

http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/
Surveying the Wreckage

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/pages/
Search Newspaper Pages

http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/10/this_is_the_end_of_the_newspaper_business.php
This is the End of the Newspaper Business

[abb]

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/forbes_to_slash_jobs_oGe3rpTqdvoF9J32lIQrJL
Forbes to slash 30+ jobs

[Huebolt]

Its not shrinking, it’s just more “selective”.

Good point, but it's also true that the ideal liberal east coast democratic puppet IS ILLITERATE ! ! ! How many third-worlders are going to read the effin' NY times? Don't even ask about your standard acorn dim-bulb. TV and porn is too challenging for most of them.

[maggief]

“Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell.”

This guy should be in government!

[Landru]

Is this not a text book example of "Whistling past the graveyard", or what.
What'd you guess ol' Rupert charged for it, methinks plenty. LOL!!

Especially love this, abb:

"In its last quarter, for instance, the New York Times (NYT), saw its daily circulation drop by more than 7%, but saw circulation revenue jump 6.7%, due to price increases. Last spring a single copy of the Times at a newsstand jumped from $1.50 to $2.00, and a Sunday Times now costs a staggering $6. But people are buying them."

I'm sure a certain "Frito Bandido" type's simply elated to learn this. No wonder Pinch-boy's so cool under fire. Makes a helluva lot more sense than the, "What? Me worry?" persona. LOL!!!!

OK then a mere, scant paragraph later following the above excerpt Kafka the Klown writes this:

"Again, the industry can’t shrink its way to recovery. There are fewer people paying for news — on or offline — than there have been in decades, and there’s no way to paint that as a positive."

BWWWWWWHAAAAA!!!!
Maybe so; but, you're sure trying, KK!! LOL!!
Unreal, surreal and simply hilarious all at once.

abb?
You've heard the name "Mark Belling", haven't you?
Mark sits-in for Rush periodically, one of WI's best & has WI's most listened to Talk Radio show following Rush at 3PM CST on WISN AM.

Yesterday this pit-bull for truth opened the topic of rags and why they're tanking.
Smokin'! Fascinating discussion, my friend.
Wished *you* could've tuned in. ;^)

[Buckeye McFrog]

Lots of upside here.

- fewer trees killed
- less opportunity to leak National Security secrets
- significantly improve the quality of the labor pool
for WalMart and McDonalds
- lower healthcare costs (due to a vast reduction in the
rate of Sudden Cranial Explosion caused by reading op
eds by Paul Krugman)

[Bean Counter]

I’ve noticed an interesting situation here in SW Washington this week between the two rival newspapers in the area.

I read the Oregonian’s morning paper every day. It keeps me regular because I usually read the editorial page while sitting on the crapper, so there is some merit to spending a buck a day.

The local fishwrapper is the columbian, and has been in bankruptcy court since earlier this year. They claim to be preparing to emerge from bankruptcy early, but I have to wonder about that one. If the Oregonian is seeing so many problems then things have to be much worse for their rival just across the river. I stopped reading them ages ago because they are little more than an AP repeater and ambulance chasing service.

I normally buy a copy of the Oregonian from a newspaper box near the house, and for the last 2 days when I paid my buck and opened the box, there was a whole stack of morning columbian’s sitting on top of the morning Oregonians. It looks to me like the columbian delivery guy is spending a buck and putting free copies of his paper on top of the Oregonian in the Oregonian box.

I took the liberty of removing those free papers this morning and planting them in a nice wet puddle so they won’t blow around.

I find the mercenary attitude interesting, and probably illegal if the truth be known, but it is entertaining to watch the two of them eat one another for a while...

[abb]

http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
Newspapers, the mass-less mass medium

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20091027_Newspapers__offer_may_not_be_enough_to_settle_debt.html
Newspapers’ offer may not be enough to settle debt

[abb]

[Hardastarboard]

New strategy: Print fewer copies, and charge more for the ones you do sell.

The author is confusing cause and effect. If you charge more for the papers you sell, you end up printing fewer copies. That silly old supply and demand thing, no matter how much the loonies at DU, DailyKos and MoveOn.org tell us it doesn't work, is like an iron law of physics.

[GOPJ]

I know you're being sarcastic - but young people actually think newsprint comes from giant redwoods... old grown forest.

Trees are a crop - much like wheat... and the ones used for paper are grown to be cut down, replanted, and cut down again.

Newspapers should go out to the schools and educate teachers who are spreading the "save a tree" crap...

[Red Badger]

I know, my brother-in-law planted seedlings for a paper company and my grandfather had pine trees growing for pulpwood. The trees that he planted in 1977 have all now grown and been harvested and the land replanted with new seedlings!..................

[RipSawyer]

Six dollars for a Sunday newspaper? Before I stopped my subscription I was paying less than that for a full month delivered to my home seven days a week.

[abb]

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004030792
In Dallas, a New Circ Strategy Emerges: Fewer Copies, More Dollars, Focus on Content

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004030730
Incoming ASNE Exec Director Says Group ‘In a Bit of a Crisis’

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004030695
Big Circulation Losers Look on the Bright Side

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004030678
Survey: Print Media too Slow in Migrating Online

http://cancelthebee.blogspot.com/
Star-Telegram daily circulation falls 13.8 percent

[ken5050]

I pay $40 ( one payment) for a YEAR of the Tampa Tribune delivered to my door, by 6am every morning..7 days a week..

[abb]

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2009/10/times_publisher_arthur_sulzber.html

Times Publisher Compares Print Media to the Titanic

[abb]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/business/media/28papers.html
French Papers Aim at Younger Readers

http://www.foliomag.com/2009/folio-show-panel-magazines-no-longer-center-universe
FOLIO: Show Panel: Magazines No Longer ‘Center of the Universe’

[abb]

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-government-money-can-corrupt-the-press-the-story-from-argentina/
How government money can corrupt the press: The story from Argentina

[abb]

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/10/how-government-money-can-corrupt-the-press-the-story-from-argentina/
How government money can corrupt the press: The story from Argentina