The paradox continues. Newspaper readership continues to run at all-time highs as the business model crumbles. From a Newspaper Association of America press release issued today:
Newspapers improved upon their website traffic in the first quarter of 2012 with a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year in adult unique visitors (113 million) and a 10 percent increase in adult average daily visitors (25 million).
Further, newspapers achieved a more than 7 percent increase in unique visitors ages 21 to 34, with average daily visits by this age group up 17 percent and total visits rising by 15 percent, an analysis performed by the Newspaper Association of America with data provided by comScore reveals. Young audience engagement with newspaper websites also is demonstrated by a 10 percent increase in average daily visitors in the 18-to-24 age group.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Fake News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
[…] Newspaper Death Watch: Newspapers improved upon their website traffic in the first quarter of 2012 with a 4.4 percent […]
I’m still confused as to why this would be a paradox. Increased traffic means nothing in terms of revenue on its own. It takes business units and people to convert it.
I previously worked on the commercial side of one of the largest newspapers in the world, and you simply dont get top quality businesspeople.
I understand it’s potentially denigrating myself and past coworkers, but the commercial side of the news business is simply not an attractive place for the top, most competitive, well-educated business minds of our generation. They were going to financial services, and now are going to the tech companies of the world.
It’s somewhat unfortunately a result of the culture of newspapers. Editorial is staffed with absolutely brilliant minds and ‘commercial’ almost becomes a dirty word, as though it’s sullying the product to make money off of it. As most newspapers are still editorially driven for the most part, what sensible first-class business person would want to become involved in the business, entering as a second class citizen?
It’s unfortunate as I’m not positive how this culture would ever change given the structure of the organizations. But until they do, traffic by itself means absolutely nothing…there needs to be brilliant people coming up with innovative ways to convert that traffic into revenue. If you were an advertising or BD exec at the top of your game, would you rather work at Google or the NY Times?
The problem, jr, and as a former reporter it pains me to say this, is that the old guard who shepherded newspapers through a period of American democracy when there was nothing else to trust, has evolved into a cadre of bureaucrats that have let their own glory get the best of them. Look no further than newspaper executive compensation last year, as tallied here by Jim Romenesko:
http://jimromenesko.com/2012/04/19/newspaper-executives-2011-compensation/
Frankly, those numbers look a lot more like banker salaries. To say “the business model is crumbling” is only half of the story. The other half of the story is that the veterans still hanging on in the business see the train wreck happening before them and yet are totally paralyzed by the thought of change because the dwindling perks to which they’ve acclimated themselves completely discourage innovation.
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