Deprecated: Function add_option was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 2.3.0 with no alternative available. in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5675
Newspapers' pace of decline quickens - Newspaper Death Watch » Newspaper Death Watch
Notice: Use of undefined constant user_level - assumed 'user_level' in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/ultimate_ga.php on line 524
By paulgillin | July 1, 2007 - 5:59 am - Posted in Fake News, Paywalls

Notice: Use of undefined constant user_level - assumed 'user_level' in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/ultimate_ga.php on line 524

Notice: Array to string conversion in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/ultimate_ga.php on line 701

Notice: Array to string conversion in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/ultimate_ga.php on line 701

Alan Mutter gathers up the dismal earnings reports of the major newspaper companies and asks the tough question: how long can these businesses survive?

He writes:

“While everyone in the newspaper business acknowledges that the good old days are gone, few people viscerally understand how rapidly the industry is coming to the point that it cannot sustain itself without farther-reaching – and likely more wrenching – structural changes than such relatively modest efforts to date as scrapping stock tables, outsourcing telephone ad-takers or even down-sizing newsrooms by 50%.

“Absent plans to pare entrenched bureaucracy, eliminate archaic work rules and speedily implement bold strategic initiatives to build significant and sustainable new revenue streams, the industry could find itself on a hopelessly irreversible trajectory. If it isn’t there already.”

I asked much the same question in my essay, “How the Coming Newspaper Industry Collapse Will Reinvent Journalism” earlier this year. The point is that the economics of newspapering – with its high fixed cost – doesn’t scale down very well. At some point, it becomes impossible to meet operating expenses, and when that happens, the whole model collapses very quickly. We will barely know what hit us.

Comments

comments

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 1st, 2007 at 5:59 am and is filed under Fake News, Paywalls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
Deprecated: Function comments_rss_link is deprecated since version 2.5.0! Use post_comments_feed_link() instead. in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 5381
RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Comments Off on Newspapers' pace of decline quickens

Comments are closed.


Warning: base64_decode() expects at least 1 parameter, 0 given in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/themes/daily-digest-30/footer.php on line 2

Notice: Use of undefined constant user_level - assumed 'user_level' in /home/newspape/public_html/wp-content/plugins/ultimate-google-analytics/ultimate_ga.php on line 524