Newspaper Circulation Worst Since 1996

Posted on May 17, 2005
Filed Under Bad Things | Leave a Comment

John Strum, Executive Director, Newspaper Association of America, as reported by eMarketer, said "Two years ago search engines were not viewed as much of a threat, (but) over the past year newspapers have recognized their effect." In reporting the latest data according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, eMarketer concludes that the threat is real. Daily US newspaper circulation dropped 1.9% in the six-month period ending March 31, which was the largest decline since 1995-1996, when circulation fell nearly 2.1%. Sunday circulation declined 2.5% over the last six months, compared with the same period a year ago.

Average Weekday Circulation for Select US Newspapers
Six Months Ending March 31, 2005

 

Circulation (millions)

% Chg From Prior Year

USA Today

2.28

0.05%

Wall Street Journal

2.07

-0.80

New York Times

1.14

0.24

Los Angeles Times + Sat

.91

-6.47

Washington Post

.75

-2.68

New York Daily News

.74

-1.54

New York Post

.68

.01

Chicago Tribune

.57

-6.64

Houston Chronicle + Sat

.53

-3.92

San Francisco Chronicle

.47

-6.07

Source: ABC, April 2005

 

The rate of decline has been 0.5% to 1% since newspaper circulation peaked in the mid-1980s, but this year’s drop alarms many in the business. John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst, said "I don’t see any bright spots and I don’t see any reasonable expectation this is going to change anytime soon." According to the Newspaper Association of America and Scarborough Research, adult readership continues to fall (as a % of the population) except for the younger and older readers, although only 19% of the 18-34 year olds rank newspapers as their primary source for current information, says the Carnegie Corporation.

"The future course of the news, including the basic assumptions about how we consume news and information and make decisions in a democratic society, is being altered by technology-savvy young people no longer wedded to traditional news outlets or even accessing news in traditional ways," wrote Merrill Brown, a media consultant and founding editor-in-chief of MSNBC.com, in the report. The report concludes that youth-drain is not the whole explanation for the decline. Readers simply have access to a great many news outlets that didn’t exist 20 years ago, including the online sites of the newspapers themselves.

Google News plans threaten indy sites

Posted on May 11, 2005
Filed Under Newspapers, Search | Leave a Comment

Google are planning to alter the way in which stories are ranked within it’s news service so that results “would be based around a database of news sources with ‘credibility’ scores calculated on story length, volume of web traffic and number of reporters and international bureau.”

Google News plans threaten indy sites

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Future of news threatened by move away from traditional sources

Posted on May 10, 2005
Filed Under Journalism | Leave a Comment

Required reading.  Lifted from Wired piece Bruce spotted referencing …

What’s the future of the news business? This report to Carnegie Corporation of New York offers some provocative ideas.

"…the Internet is already clearly ahead of other media among the young. According to the Magid survey, young news consumers say that the Internet, by a 41-to-15 percent margin over second ranked local TV, is “the most useful way to learn.” And 49 percent say the Internet provides news “only when I want it” (a critical factor to this age group) versus 15 percent for second-ranked local TV. This audience, the future news consumers and leaders of a complex, modern society, are abandoning the news as we’ve known it, and it’s increasingly clear that a great number of them will never return to daily newspapers and the national broadcast news programs".

Web tailored

Posted on May 10, 2005
Filed Under Newspapers, User Generated, Weblogs | Leave a Comment

Interesting NYT piece about Gawker media.
Link: A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip - New York Times.

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WSJ Europe / Asia moves to compact format and bundles with WSJ.com

Posted on May 9, 2005
Filed Under Paid Content | Leave a Comment

These initiatives include reformatting its Asian and European editions on Oct. 17 into an easier-to-read, convenient and accessible compact format; combining the Asian and European print editions with the award-winning The Wall Street
Journal Online at WSJ.com to better serve the needs of highly mobile international business leaders; pursuing a new, more targeted circulation strategy focused on C-suite executives; and making a number of related personnel promotions and reassignments. The combination of a compact format, plus the full content of The Wall Street Journal Online — the largest paid subscription news site on the Web — will offer readers a more convenient daily package of more news in more ways that better suits how busy readers use news today.

John McMenamin, head of international advertising sales, The Wall Street Journal, said, “These new initiatives are an aggressive step to offer advertisers increased access to the Journal’s unparalleled audience by combining both print and online platforms, and shifting to a compact format that better lends itself to the needs of our global readership and the advertisers who want more opportunity to reach them.”

The newspapers will carry more themed and regionally relevant content and an updated statistics package, more navigational online tools, more stories and fewer jumps between pages. The Asian Wall Street Journal will be renamed The Wall Street Journal Asia when the compact edition launches in October, and will continue to be edited in Hong Kong. The Wall Street Journal Europe will continue to be edited in Brussels.

The full release is available. 

Online Ad Revenues Grow 33%

Posted on May 9, 2005
Filed Under Advertising | Leave a Comment

“Interactive Advertising has clearly become a mainstream medium and one that can no longer be ignored as a critical piece of any marketing mix,” said Greg Stuart, president and CEO of the IAB. “The PwC 2004 reported figures indicate that Interactive is firing on all cylinders including display, search and classifieds and is squarely on track to surpass consumer magazine revenues.”

Ad Categories – In 2004, consumer advertisers continued to lead the way in online advertising spending accounting for 49% of total revenues. The top five in this segment are:

  2004 2003
Consumer 49% 37%
Computing 18% 20%
Financial Services 17% 12%
Pharma & Healthcare 6% 4%
Telecom 4% 4%

A copy of the full report is available for download at
http://www.iab.net/2004adrevenues.

Sony LIBRIe - The first ever E-Ink e-Book Reader

Posted on May 5, 2005
Filed Under Technology | Leave a Comment

Sony LIBRIe - The first ever E-Ink e-Book Reader
Looks quite promising for a first generation product. Would you read a newspaper on one?

Business week: Mainstream press will open archives

Posted on May 4, 2005
Filed Under Digitisation, Newspapers, Paid Content | Leave a Comment

Link: Prediction: Mainstream press will open archives.

Circulation down at FT but 80,000 paying for FT.com

Posted on May 2, 2005
Filed Under Paid Content | Leave a Comment

Pearson Chairman Dennis Stevenson commented that: 

"The fact is the FT’s circulation always suffers in recession. However the FT’s circulation in the U.K. has gone down further than you would expect - it has happened at a time when 80,000 people are looking at FT.com and paying to do so."

Good answer, but I bet you any money they would prefer 80,000 readers of the paper.  Difficult to compare the two media forms but in simple terms if you compare revenue per edition (advertising and cover price) the newspaper will generate at least 10 times what each "edition" of FT.com generates. 

Neil Budde on the future of online news/advertising

Posted on May 2, 2005
Filed Under Advertising | Leave a Comment

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PUBLISHERS, ADVERTISERS, and readers that at one time sustained news companies is now obsolete, according to Neil Budde, the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal Online, who was hired by Yahoo! as its news director in November.

"Online news consumption will continue to evolve in a combination of aggregation and editorial content," Budde said. "We want to give users a compelling new package with all the ready recourses to control their consumption."

See full article at MediaPost.

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