Posted on 05/02/2008 11:58:18 AM PDT by freerepublic_or_die
The New York Times once epitomised all that was great about American newspapers; now it symbolises its industry’s deep malaise. The Grey Lady’s circulation is tumbling, down another 3.9% in the latest data from America’s Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). Its advertising revenues are down, too (12.5% lower in March than a year earlier), as is the share price of its owner, the New York Times Company, up from its January low but still over 20% below what it was last July. On Tuesday April 29th Standard & Poor’s cut the firm’s debt rating to one notch above junk.
At the company’s annual meeting a week earlier, its embattled publisher, Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger, attempted to quash rumours that his family is preparing to jettison the firm it has owned since 1896. Carnage is expected soon as dozens of what were once the safest jobs in journalism are axed, since too few of the staff have accepted a generous offer of voluntary redundancy.
Pick almost any American newspaper company and you can tell a similar story. The ABC reported that for the 530 biggest dailies, average circulation in the past six months was 3.6% lower than in the same period a year earlier; for Sunday papers, it was 4.6% lower. Ad revenues are plunging across the board: by 22.3% at Media General, for example. In 2007 total newspaper revenues fell to $42.2 billion, not to be sniffed at, certainly, but a lot less than the peak of $48.7 billion in 2000.
Much of this decline is being blamed on the rise of the internet, which offers free, round-the-clock coverage, and which has provided a new, better home for classified advertising, once the bedrock of most newspapers’ revenue.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
Ping
I can’t wait for the wake———(make this one an Irish wake)
Save the Trees!
WTH is "voluntary redundancy"?
V-E-N-E-R-A-B-L-E...? (chuckling :)
Now it 'epitomises' what the cancer of liberalism with its biases and agendas can do to just about anything. It destroys... event itself.
It is interesting that the two newspapers I still read with any regularity are both still making money.
The Wall Street Journal has a splendid editorial page and newswriters who actually do original research and write informative articles. Even though I disagree vehemently with its radical "Open borders" stance, I still must admit that it is engaging and informative.
The same can be said for our local Pittsburgh area paper. Editorially, it often slides into Ron Paul style libertarian moonbatry. But there is balance and evidence of work on this paper. If I find a Tribune-Review laying around, I'll actually read it. The lieberal counterpart Pittsburgh Post Gazette is good for little more than lining a bird cage.
ping
I for one would love to see Pinch standing on the street corner with a tin cup begging for quarters.
I really, really despise that leftist, commie, pinko, granola-loving, former hippie and limousine liberal.
"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...
"The New York Times ... circulation is ... down another 3.9%; ... advertising revenues are down ... 12.5% [and] Standard & Poor’s cut the firm’s debt rating to one notch above junk."
"Industry experts such as Lauren Rich Fine of Kent State University do not think that the Times is responding forcefully enough. “Now is the time to beef up its business section,” she says. "
Watching the NY Times slowly sink is like watching a hated foe go down with his ship. What a pleasure.
As for the academic's comment, she is oblivious to one thing. I haven't paid a nickel for a NY Times for the past 20 years. Nor for the LA Times. Why? Because I never want to be a single tick in their circulation numbers. NOT ONE SINGLE TICK. I presume that there are at least another 100 million Americans who feel as I do, and hopefully our long boycott contributes to the drama we see unfolding.
In English English, a/k/a Brit-Speak, a redundancy in this context is a layoff. A voluntary redundancy, basically, is what we would call accepting a buy-out offer, typically some kind of early retirement package or a lump sum payoff based on the number of years of employment.
http://sbdailysound.blogspot.com/2008/05/mccaw-hands-out-pink-slips.html
Thursday, May 1, 2008
McCaw hands out pink slips
BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER
In an action dubbed a “company wide reorganization,” the Santa Barbara News-Press laid off 10 employees yesterday, two of whom were editors.
An internal memo circulated to News-Press employees said the layoffs were the result of declines in circulation, advertising revenue, and a contentious labor dispute between current and former newsroom staff and the paper’s management.
snip
OK, thanks for the translation.
LOL!:)
Stock up on birdcage liner now while you still can. If I had a bird, I’d make sure it sh*t on nothing but the NY Slimes.
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