New York Times Announces Decline of Newspapers
As Joey Alarilla points out, newspapers are fucked. From The New York Times:
Circulation at the nation’s largest newspapers plunged over the last six months, according to figures released today. The decline, one of the steepest on record, adds to the woes of a mature industry beset by layoffs and the possible sale of some of its flagships.
Overall, average daily circulation for 770 newspapers was 2.8 percent lower in the six-month period ending Sept. 30 than in the comparable period last year, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported. Circulation for 619 Sunday papers fell by 3.4 percent.
But some papers fared much worse. The Los Angeles Times lost 8 percent of its daily circulation, and 6 percent on Sunday. The Boston Globe, owned by The New York Times Company, lost 6.7 percent of its daily circulation and almost 10 percent on Sunday.
The New York Times, one of the few major papers whose circulation held steady over the last few reporting periods, did not emerge unscathed this time: its daily and Sunday circulation each fell 3.5 percent. The Washington Post suffered similar declines.
The Wall Street Journal’s new Weekend Edition, just over a year old, lost 6.7 of its circulation from a year ago.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, which changed hands earlier this year and where the new owner is in the middle of difficult contract negotiations with the paper’s unions, lost 7.6 percent of its daily circulation and 4.5 percent on Sunday.
Newspaper circulation has been in a long, slow decline for decades. But the pace of loss seems accelerated now, as the industry tries to adjust to the steady migration of readers and advertisers to the Internet.
Now why would The New York Times announce the decline of newspapers? Simple: they’re ready for it.
Tags: Media, newspapers, NYTimes
October 31, 2006 | Filed Under MediaComments
7 Responses to “New York Times Announces Decline of Newspapers”
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About the Author
Mike Abundo serves as Vice-President for Online Services of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society. He also writes for Inside Online Video and Tech Side Up. Email him at mike@mikeabundo.com.
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You are absolutely right and IRIS Blog has the proof. Conservative papers have been steadily growing.
For example, the Post is now the #1 tabloid in New York after this year’s 5% jump and 19% growth over the past four years.
You’re right, Fred. Conservatives are more likely to cling to dead tree media. Only lately has Bush discovered “the Google“.
[...] One of the reasons I love the New York Times is its confidence to honestly report the decline of offline media, because it knows what it’s doing with online media. After announcing the decline of newspapers, here they are predicting a bad advertising year for offline media — and a great year for online media. Troubling ’07 Forecast for the Old-Line Media but Not for the Online [...]
[...] As I’ve said before, this is a time of transition: dying media chronicling rising media. I just recommended Christine for inclusion in The Fizz, a DirecTV show about videobloggers. [...]
[...] the large end of good media, you have newspapers telling it like it is, online and offline. On the small end of good media, you have A-list bloggers breaking scoops and [...]
[...] this clueless deserves to lose billions in the fall of newspapers. [...]
[...] news for top-down media: Google won’t buy them away from their inevitable oblivion. “We made a decision to focus primarily on user-generated content, and not on businesses [...]