2007 The Worst Year For Newspapers Since 1950

Wall Street Journal:

Print-ad revenue at U.S. newspapers last year suffered its biggest decline since at least 1950, the Newspaper Association of America reported, amid signs that conditions in the newspaper industry have worsened so far this year.

Print-ad revenue plummeted 9.4% to $42 billion in 2007, according to an NAA estimate released Friday. Classified ads, which account for a third of the total, were hit especially hard, down almost 17%.

The NAA's estimate showed that while newspapers' online-ad revenue is growing, the extra ad dollars coming from the Internet aren't enough to offset the lost print revenue. Including online revenue, newspapers still saw ad spending fall 7.9% in 2007 -- second only to the 9% decline the NAA reported they experienced in 2001, when the estimate didn't include online revenue.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[NoSillyName]

Where are the comments for this item? I see only Two. It says there are Seven. There are Zero pending. What gives?

[NoSillyName]

Ah, there they are! Thanks!

[nogimmicks]

That is good news. The bad one is that TV channels, like CNN, are as much infested with the neo-conservative spin doctors as the newspapers, and even Google is now becoming a mind control branch of the government.

[NoSillyName]

I try to support newspapers. I finally canceled my daily subscription to the Albuquerque Journal last year due to poor delivery service. Now I've been trying since February 18th to get a Sunday only subscription started and only getting frustration. Maybe newspapers are trying to commit suicide?

[Rockwell]

I used to get the paper religiously, mainly for the editorials and the funnies. Now I can get 1000 editorials online and even respond to them and write my own. So I have no interest in my newspaper's 2 columnist. As to the funnies, I've got 1000 entertainment options each day and reading Haggar the Horrible isn't one I choose.

I got hooked on cross-words and sudoku for awhile but still couldn't justify the cost and the disposal of a pile of newsprint. If I want a local story, I go to my paper's web site.

If a local paper wants to survive, they are going to have to find an on-line model that works for them.

And to the local shopper papers who keep throwing their unwanted rags on my lawn, please stop it. There are 2 people on my street that actually read those things. The rest of us have to pick these multi-colored, water soaked pulp piles off our lawns like dog crap.

[larry278]

The WSJ is continuing in its tradition of writing its own obit while it's dying. The newspaper is dying because of changes in the way news is collected, written, edited & distributed. The web allows news to to be updated & distributed almost instantly. Newspapers in 1 paper towns formerly had no incentive to adapt to changes in technology. The flight of the former users of newspapers to the web has driven circulation & advertising down. The ads go to where the users of news go.
This WSJ story reminds one of the stories the WSJ posted as Mr Murdoch bought control off the WSJ & Dow Jones from the family which had controlled the WSJ for a few generations. The facts are treated almost like history. It's almost similar to someone writing a running commentary as a hand is re-attached to their arm.

[elr50]

I agree Voter, the only local paper in my area is Bush controlled and hardly worth lining a litter pan. Newspapers are putting themselves out of business by becoming increasingly biased and irrelevant.

[VOTER]

Newspapers unwilling to PRINT REAL NEWS should go out of business.

Today's papers have taken the saying "News That's Fit To Print" to mean, only printing

"news/propaganda" approved by the Bush Administration.

[Nutcase]

As a former foreign correspondent back in the 1950s and 60s, I can tell you that the problem of slanted news is not of recent origin.

The public bears some responsibility for the lack of "real news." There is not that much demand for it and the public doesn't always recognize it when it sees it. They have been fed the phony news by the media for so long that they may not realize the difference. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Je pense, donc je suis populiste.