Newspapers fastest shrinking industry in US...

Dailies may be gone within 5 years...

Bleak outlook for US newspapers - FT.com


gordo

BTW - sorry to say that for the past few years I only got Friday's paper for the TV guide. This year I stopped getting the paper completely.

It is very real and happening right in front of everyone. I wonder if this is what the transition was like when the Horse and Buggy went away for daily transportation..... For my life and time on this earth the loss of Newspapers will most likely be the biggest change in history in regards to how we process something so important as information.


Oh well, back to my MAC Lol
 
FWIW, I just cancelled my paper after 13+ years of subscription.

Our local paper, the Grand Rapids Press, had this idea to limit deliveries to subscribers to three days a week, while still producing a daily for the newsstands. As a bonus(?), subscribers would get an e-Edition of the daily. I guess the reduced cost of distribution is going to save them lots of money. But the rest of the overhead remains, and has been added to by amping up the online presence.

I don't know why they wanted to (in my opinion) punish subscribers, as I would imagine that's how you would audit ad revenue. I work in front of a monitor all day, the last thing I want to do is to read the paper on my laptop screen. I sure hope they save lots of money from the reduced distribution costs, but many people in my area are dropping the paper.

I'm guessing once you push them to the web, either they will take to it completely and the newspaper companies will not have to actually publish anything. I sure hope they get the younger demographic reading their sites, but they have a world of choices beyond the local newspaper media outlets. I don't think it will happen.

Then there are people like myself who actually liked the physical newspaper and will ignore these local sources of news for other sources on the web. I believe that the newspapers ceding their territory will allow local radio and TV outlets to become that much stronger.

It may be a no-win situation for them, but at least when they were providing an actual product AND service, there was value. If these news services all want to be a localized Yahoo!, then good luck to them.
 
Dailies may be gone within 5 years...

Ok so what people will read on buses, subways, in restaurants, waiting lines etc? I doubt everyone will carry an iPad in 5 years.

For example, I can't eat without reading. I will go out of my way to find a newspaper if I'm about to eat somewhere outside. :)


Leo Revzin
--
Zevrix Solutions
Solutions for Graphics, Print & File Delivery
 
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Ok so what people will read on buses, subways, in restaurants, waiting lines etc? I doubt everyone will carry an iPad in 5 years.

Leo Revzin

They'll be doing more of what they do now - twitting [sic], facebooking, texting, etc on their smartphones.

What I don't understand is that newspaper publishers use the newspaper to promote their website but they don't use their website to promote their newspaper - e.g. keep the content brief on the web then point the viewer to the physical paper for more in depth content. They are actively making the physical newspaper redundant, and, AFAIK, except for a very few publications, newspaper publishers are losing money with their web sites - even if the site is behind a pay wall.

The only papers here (Canaduh) that are making money are the free local community newspapers. They have become the delivery mechanism of choice for advertising flyers. Also, there is no real alternative competing online source for small community news. So they're doing fine - at least until there's an effective online alternative to physical flyers.

best, gordo
 

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