Posted on 08/27/2009 4:24:20 PM PDT by abb
Newspapers' financial woes worsened in the second quarter as advertising sales shrank by 29 percent, leaving publishers with $2.8 billion less revenue than they had at the same time last year.
It's the deepest downturn yet during a three-year free fall in advertising revenue — newspapers' main source of income. The magnitude of the industry's advertising losses have intensified in each of the last 12 quarters.
The numbers released Thursday by the Newspaper Association of America weren't a shock, given the dramatic erosion mirrored the advertising losses that the largest U.S. newspaper publishers already had reported for the April-June period.
Still, the statistics served as a stark reminder of the crisis facing newspapers as they try to cope with a brutal recession and advertising trends that have shifted more marketing dollars to the Internet.
"This data represents a rearview-mirror perspective on what we all know was a terrible stretch of bad road," said John Sturm, chief executive for the newspaper association that serves as the industry's largest trade group.
The latest turbulence left U.S. newspapers with ad sales of $6.8 billion in this year's second quarter compared to $9.6 billion last year.
Through the first half of the year, newspaper ad revenue plunged 29 percent to $13.4 billion.
Some newspaper industry executives are hoping the slide bottomed out in the second quarter. That optimism is largely grounded in the belief that recession will end soon — if it hasn't already — and encourage advertisers to loosen their pursestrings, particularly toward the end of the year as they try to persuade consumers to spend more in the holiday shopping season.
"When the economy begins its recovery, advertisers will return to spending, and newspapers will find themselves well positioned to harness the strength of their platforms to build a brighter future."
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(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Mostly self-inflicted
Giving away Kindles that autoload every morning at 4AM the subscribed papers would actually save them money, assuming they could find a way to make people see the ads.
With e-paper starting to come into its own we could see folding sheets of plastic that are screens that has news all over it. Someday. All those printers and delivery guys would be out of work.
That is Superman in the left foreground, with his back mostly turned and his hands visible.
Newspapers can’t die fast enough for me. They stopped reporting the news, and they are now creating the news. Nearly all are propaganda rags for the socialists in Washington. They are untrustworthy.
They sure are. Im a internet news reader almost always. I opened yesterdays Buffalo news in a restaurant and was just stunned at the fawning of the latest dead kennedy. Way over the top. They aren’t even trying to get me to come up with .75 to buy that propaganda. So why on earth would I invest my advertising $$ in that paper?
If I’m not buying it, my customer also isn’t.
The editor there is sticking it to their employees.
LOL!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Reeves
Reeves’s film career began in 1939 when he was cast as Stuart Tarleton (albeit incorrectly listed in the film’s credits as Brent Tarleton), one of Vivien Leigh’s suitors in Gone with the Wind. It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane, both in brightly dyed red hair as “the Tarleton Twins,” were in the film’s opening scenes. He was contracted to Warner Brothers at the time, and the actor’s professional name became “George Reeves”[4] and his GWTW screen credit reflects the change.
Their subscriptions have declined to the point where they have to publish a "free" mini weekend edition (it just shows up in everybody's driveway, subscriber or not) just to get their advertising out in front of enough people to keep from losing all their advertisers.
Oh well, Henry Ford put all those buggy whip manufacturers out of business, and we never hear much from them anymore... I'm sure most of us will get along just fine without them.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1004007001
SPECIAL REPORT: Will E-readers Help Save Newspapers?
Actually I saw an article about how much it costs to print newspapers and delivery them. They found that it would be more profitable to give subscribers a Kindle than deliver paper editions to them.
Government and government bean counters like Goldman Sachs
Libs understand only two things..Power and Money. Hit them in the wallet America...
You forgot your sarcasm tag.
It's unbelievable how Oboma has managed to destroy so much in such little time, isn't it? He's making "put on a sweater" Carter look like a political genius.
The Dallas Mourning Snooze is a dollar a day now and $3 on Sundays. Twice the price of last year. NOT worth it.
SPECIAL REPORT: Will E-readers Help Save Newspapers?
Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle
http://www.businessinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-costs-twice-as-much-as-sending-every-subscriber-a-free-kindle
Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle
That thinking is way way beyond their IQ grade.
The Plain-Dealer is down to 20 pages?? no way!
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