Newspaper Nose Dive Continues
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for “print media,” U.S. newspaper advertising revenues continued to plummet during the second quarter of 2009 – dropping 29% from this time last year.
That’s a $2.8 billion loss, for those of you keeping score at home.
Given the years-in-the-making shift to online media, newspaper revenues were already declining well before the onset of the current recession in December 2007 – but they have since taken a nose dive off the cliff.
The result? Well, there have been bankruptcies (Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times), closings (Rocky Mountain News) and shifts to “online only” editions (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Here in South Carolina, The State newspaper (a.k.a. La Socialista) and numerous other outlets have been fighting for survival – grappling with declining circulation and multiple rounds of layoffs.
Obviously, the recent scandals surrounding S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford have breathed new life into South Carolina newspapers – at least as far as their online audiences are concerned.
The State newspaper recorded a whopping 1 million unique visitors in June, according to the website Compete.com, although that figure began coming back to earth in July (539K). Prior to the Sanford scandal breaking, La Socialista had been averaging around 300K unique visits a month.
Comments
By rick on August 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Gee, I can’t understand why print media would have an issue. After all, their unvarnished pursuit of the truth combined with centrist reporting should have been their shield against the vageries of life and industry. Stomache upset, need to upchuck…read Jeanne Brooks of the Greenville Bird Cage liner or the insipid whining of Chuck Rausch….that’ll get the bad out and still leave you with enough paper to make your parakeet sing.
By Mike on August 28th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Like wife beaters, drug addicts, and other dysfunctional societal misfits, newspapers NEVER take a long look in the mirror and arrive at the conclusion that the problem may not lie with the rest of the world, but within.
By Elliott on August 28th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Do you answer questions on here? My question – I always thought that newspaper made little money from subscription fees and that subscription money went for delivery and maybe printing. The real money for newspapers came from advertising. Why can’t The State sell their ads on blogs? You can count the readers. I notice blog ads as often as newspaer ads.
By Longshot on August 28th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
It doesn’t make sense. If the State has a hot story they should run with it. If they sit on it then it makes me think they are not objectively doing their job which makes me suspicious. They ought to let the dirt roll on whoever they can get it on.