I think Cicero’s theory has merit. They took it in the shorts in their education division.....big time. Their circulation has flat-lined: what they lost in print, they made up in online circulation.
It amazes me why people would subscribe to that drivel when they can get much better for free.
Still, a 67% loss will bring folks into the boardroom. Shareholders are not going to tolerate zero growth circulation in the print division, in the only place in the USA where jobs are stable.
My local county paper, which is very small, has been thin as a dime for years, mostly because there are no advertisements and no ad revenue; no real real estate section, no auto sales advertisements. At one point last summer, I remember seeing papers with almost no advertisements. I don’t know how that works?
My children go to a private school and the skilled nursing facility that I work in (since I was bumped out of my own job market in ‘09) both have piles of paper dumped off every day, which go unread ~ unopened. The papers go from the delivery to the offices to the recycling bin.
Obviously, these delivery programs are part of an effort to mask a horribly declined circulation rate. So that the paper can continue to charge for a higher revenue. Every other small town paper probably participates in similar programs. I have to wonder when the law of diminishing returns may kick in with the cost of gas and paper running higher everyday.
I always disliked the WaPo for its political slant, but I occasionally bought it from time to time. After Jim Webb was elected in ‘06 in the race against George Allen for Virginia’s Senate seat ~ with news stories that amounted to tens of thousands of dollars in free advertising for Webb, the whole “macaca” thing, Allen’s mother being a jew ~ I promised that the Post would never see the inside of my home. It has not.
For me, at that time, the Post went from being a relatively benign left leaning rag to being a propaganda organization that influenced the outcome of the election.
At the same time the Washington Times has cut back. I look for the paper online, but can not purchase it at a local convenience store anymore. When I visit my in-laws in Delaware. I see the Times on news stands and I always pick-up a copy ~ much to the chagrin of my liberal, Post purchasing, ex-hippy mother in law.