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Norton, get in here ..... you gotta hear this!
Posted on 12/06/2006 4:39:27 AM PST by abb
The Dallas Morning News, which in April stopped distributing newspapers to most areas beyond a 200-mile radius, will probably cut its circulation area again next year, the head of parent Belo Corp. said Tuesday.
"Further refinements to The Morning News' distribution areas will occur in the first half of 2007, reducing the circulation perimeter to 100 miles in certain areas," Belo chairman, president and chief executive Robert W. Decherd said at a Credit Suisse Group media and telecommunications investment conference in New York.
Mr. Decherd said that changes in Belo's circulation practices at The News and its other three daily newspapers are saving the company about $8 million annually.
Mr. Decherd didn't elaborate on which areas may be dropped from the paper's circulation area. He indicated that some outlying areas will continue to receive The News, saying "there are still areas more than 100 miles from Dallas that are still very profitable and important for us. So we're going to keep them, but try to probably bring it in."
The move will help The News "because it's less newsprint, less distribution costs, and I see no real revenue benefit forgone," he said.
The planned circulation pullback comes as much of the U.S. newspaper industry has been in turmoil, struggling to find ways to counter stagnant or falling revenues from print advertising. To slash costs, a number of major newspapers, including The News, have cut their workforces this year.
In some cases, newspapers have changed ownership. Knight Ridder Inc. was broken up and its newspapers sold to several buyers. Tribune Co. is deliberating what to do with its properties, including the Los Angeles Times.
Some individual investors and private equity groups have demonstrated interest in acquiring newspapers.
But Mr. Decherd, responding to a question, said he doesn't favor taking Belo private.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
"There was a land of Publishers and Editors called the Newspaper Business... Here in this pretty world Journalism took its last bow... Here was the last ever to be seen of Reporters and their Enablers, of Anonymous Sources and of Stringers... Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered. A Civilization Gone With the Wind..."
With apologies to Margaret Mitchell...
Ping
The poor old, tired, liberal Dallas Morning Snooze will finally only cover the central city, where no one reads English...including graduates of Dallas high schools who were born there.
Makes a lot of sense. They use horses to pull the delivery wagons, and this way they can reduce the number of animals, and wagons. And have you seen the price of hay and oats these days?
"Mr. Decherd said that changes in Belo's circulation practices at The News and its other three daily newspapers are saving the company about $8 million annually."
Think how much money they could save if they shut down the newpaper completely.
That's a 75% drop in area. Good riddance.
Looks as if that's the plan, lol...
In the fall of 2005 the paper stopped coming, then later the official announcement about cutting back to the 200 mile limit came. Well, the paper is on line anyway if anyone wants to read it. All we miss is the pound and a half of slick ads on Sunday mornings, which of course is where the paper's income originates.
Would you really respond to any of them if the stores were 250 miles away?
Let the DNC buy your papers.
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Norton, get in here ..... you gotta hear this!
Best sports section of any paper I've read.
But but but if PravdABDNC goes under how will the Dems get their beliefs hidden???
Pray for W and Our Troops
That can be parsed several ways. If he means 100 miles from Belo HQ, that would be roughly from the Red River to Waco, and from just beyond Mineral Wells to Tyler (but probably not Longview). If you measure from the printing plant in Plano, it probably wouldn't get you to Waco.
On the other hand, if he means the perimeter itself is only 100 miles long, it would enclose an area roughly the size of Dallas County.
Since the areas to the west of Dallas are largely Startlegram territory, even the largest of those areas is about a third smaller than it would appear at first blush.
In another year or so, they should be down to Dallas, Rockwall, the southern half of Collin and the Southwest corner of Denton county for their circulation area. Maybe they should give a free Cue|Cat with each new subscription.
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