Blame it on left-wing bias.
Blame it on Twitter.
Blame it on cable television.
Whatever you blame it on, you folks in the newspaper business had better adjust the business model to accommodate all of the above or you're toast:
Newspaper Ad Revenues Fall to 60-Yr. Low in 2011Wow.
By Mark J. Perry, Carpe Diem
The chart above displays total annual print newspaper advertising revenue based on actual annual data from 1950 to 2010, and estimated annual revenue for 2011 using quarterly data through the third quarter, from the Newspaper Association of America. The advertising revenues have been adjusted for inflation, and appear in the chart as millions of constant 2011 dollars. Estimated revenues of $20.7 billion in 2011 will be the lowest annual amount spent on newspaper advertising since $19.5 billion in 1951, exactly 60 years ago.
The decline in newspaper ad revenues to a 60-year low is amazing by itself, but the sharp decline in recent years is pretty stunning. Last year's ad revenues of about $21 billion were less than half of the $46 billion spent just four years ago in 2007, and less than one-third of the $64 billion spent in 2000.
And even when online advertising is added to the print ads, the combined total spending for print and online advertising in 2011 will still only be about $22.6 billion, just slightly more than the $22.5 billion spent on print advertising in 1954. [link]
I've got my list of newspapers about which I will rejoice when they meet their demise. And a lengthy list it is. But really? I'll miss the morning paper when it's gone.
For surely it's going to be gone if someone really smart working in the journalism business doesn't figure this mess out. And quick.
2 comments:
What we're going to miss is professional journalism. I count on the blog/social media providing some of that service (i think the credible bloggers will be supported through the market and the crappy guys will get weeded out), but it's not like the internet will uncover the next pentagon papers, iran-contra, watergate, lewinsky, enron, etc items that professional journalist are paid to research.
Excellent points anon. However, one wonders why the "professional journalists" didn't get the scoop on Obama-ayers beginning with his association with Terrorist Ayers, Rev? Wright, Rezko and the Annenberg Challenge. How come we know nothing about his Occidental College days, travels abroad, old flames, articles written when he ran the Harvard Law Review, college grades, etc. None are so blind as the "professionals" with a cause, methinks.
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