Newspapers Closing While Localization Continues on the Web
If you came here after searching for Why Newspapers Are Closing On The Web you may also want to read the post about Print Media Moving Online.
As has been widely reported lately the old school newspapers continue to lose money and close up shop while online ad spending grows. Today I found an interesting story, ironically, in the paper version of USA Today. How did I find it, well because the paper was sitting outside my hotel room door this morning.
Rather than paging through the cumbersome, too large, flimsy paper copy I went online and read the same story. Hence the problem the newspapers are running headlong into.
Most papers have some online ad component at this point but most were using it to supplement their offline revenue rather than using it as their primary business model. This is catching up with them. As more and more people are going online to check everything from news to classifieds to weather they no longer need 6, 12, 24, 36 hour old info.
As I posted on twitter recently its all about local, local, local, social, social, social....
You can read the story here: USA Today Article
I think for the majority of the newspapers, although their online ad revenue has grown, it is too late to fix their core business models to make it through the era of real time, mashed up, and twitter size news.
I found it extremely disappointing that a group of people laid off from the Denver paper actually were petitioning to get 50,000 subs signed up for a subscription fee to start an online news site. Once again, old school models that just will not work for localized news.
These issues that the newspapers are facing are core to many legacy brick and mortar industries but are also the reason our domain names/web properties will continue to gain value even while the economy fights through this downturn.
Comment away!
I was laid off from my longtime job as a newspaper reporter, but it wasn’t for the reasons you discuss.
Here’s the deal – Bread and butter for any newspaper lies in its advertising. For the paper I worked for, we still had the same number of subscribers, and the online content actually put readership on a global scale rather than a local one.
The top advertisers in the paper I worked for – and actually every paper I’ve worked for – are BANKS and REAL ESTATE. And when those two industries tank and can’t afford those expensive, color, full-page ads, everyone suffers.
The classifieds are also suffering greatly, because craigslist and social networking has really taken away any need for people to place small ads in the paper.
I don’t know how newspapers are going to be able to reshape themselves for Web 2.0, but they will need to. I think when I was laid off, my career in newspapering was over. That may change, if the newspapers can.
Very good points, I think the classified hit is really putting the nail in the coffin for many. Thanks for the insight.
From a traditional newspaper reader’s standpoint, I think a lot of (older) people are going to be disappointed from the complete demise of newspapers, if that were to happen. However, with the advance of technology, electronic “paper” is a great alternative. Just Google the words for images and info.