Wall Street to Daily Papers: ‘Drop Dead’ – The Nation, Jan. 24, 2008
[Eric Alterman’s piece on the sad state of newspaper publishing (owners don’t even try to spin their cost cut positively any more, he notes), includes these interesting factoids:
- Newspapers’ share of Internet advertising is declining. Online ad sales were up 26 percent to more than $15 billion in the first nine months of 2007, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers, but for the first time newspapers no longer received the largest share.
- The time Americans spend reading newspapers has fallen to just fifteen hours per month.
- Daily readership for people under 30 now stands at barely one in five.]
Gannett Eyes Another Student Newspaper – Chronicle.com, Jan. 23, 2008
[Gannett is buying student newspapers, perhaps because the major metro daily market has such a poor future. -Ed.]
Ledger’s death a window into speed reporting – Los Angeles Times, Jan. 22, 2008
[An LA Times blog looks at the chaos and misinformation that surrounded the death of 28-year-old actor Heath Ledger. Some readers have complained that this was shoddy journalism, but the blog points out that it’s really an evolution of news reporting in the online world. “If the public wants its information as raw and immediate as possible, it’ll have to get used to a few missteps along the way, and maybe even approach breaking stories with a bit of skepticism, like a good reporter would,” it notes. -Ed.]
Murdoch Retreats From All-Free WSJ.com – Media Post, Jan. 25, 2008
[Maybe that $65M revenue stream isn’t such a bad thing after all. -Ed.]
Don’t shoot the messengers – Reflections of a Newsosaur, Jan. 23, 2008
[Alan Mutter suggests that the financial situations at the Philadelphia Inquirer and Minneapolis Star Tribune are dire and that the owners could be close to defaulting on their debt. What to do? If the creditors come in to run the papers, they’ll simply slash budgets to restore profitability, but at what long-term cost? There are no clear solutions to this predicament. -Ed.]
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