Why Didn't Obama's Run Help Chicago Newspapers?

Ad Age:

Barack Obama's resounding victory led to a run on newspapers around the country, but especially in Chicago, where giddy readers scrambled to grab keepsake copies of Nov. 5 issues commemorating the election of a native son and first African-American as president.

The Chicago Tribune boosted its press run nearly 30%, and the Chicago Sun-Times upped production 50%, and still papers were hard to find on newsstands around town. "Obama is a hometown boy, and the demand for today's edition has been incredible," said a Tribune spokesman.

But the post-election sales surge raises question about why the story of Mr. Obama's run failed to boost newspaper sales in his hometown.

During the six months ended this September, the Tribune saw its weekday circulation decline nearly 8%, to 516,032, while the Sun-Times fell by nearly 4% to 313,176.

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Comments

[IllinoisTexan43]

As an aside, there was a paper in east Texas, the Terrell Tribune which didn't even mention Pres. Elect Obama's win. Instead they reported that their county garnered a 67% vote for McCain. But this is Texas ya'all.

[nowalnuts]

I stopped buying those papers a long time ago because of their love for Bush and Co. Online news is all I need.

[unfiltered]

newspapers are dead. they were vibrant when they were the gatekeeper to information, but the only reason i go to their site, for I'd never buy the paper, is because they follow the local sports teams. even huffpost follows politics and major events now.
and, because they don't care about their readers, like so many other monopolies with their customers, and spin information, I celebrate their demise. Nothing worse than a fake journalist.

[honeydiva]

because they were basically negative...that's why!