Deja-Boom: Newspaper Circulation Drops Again
The other day after the Alex Rodriguez hit another game winning home run for the Yankees, one of the New York tabloids ran a headline: Deja-Boom. Today as I write this I am thinking Deja-Boom, as in lowering the newspaper boom all over again. Yesterday, the Editor & Publisher reported:
According to industry sources, overall daily circulation for the six months ending March 2007 is expected to sink approximately 2.5% while Sunday will drop around 3.0%. Yet again, major metro papers are bearing the brunt of the responsibility for the declines.
Papers that are showing daily drops of 5% or more, according to circulation sources, include: The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J., The Orange County (Calif.) Register, The Austin American-Statesman, the San Jose Mercury News, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Also yesterday Romenesko pointed readers to a Forbes column saying:
…suppose someone invented a digital newspaper, connected wirelessly to the Internet, that people actually enjoyed reading over coffee in the morning or taking along their morning train ride. Then newspapers could insert advertisements that people could click on, or advertisements that were tailored to knowledge about the person reading the ad. They would be playing on a more level playing field with Google and similar firms.
I have thought about this before as one means of salvation. So instead of paper being the delivery system it is an electronic device that the newspaper company provides you for free as long as you are a subscriber, just as it now provides you with “free paper.” As I consumer, let’s say I would pay $20 a month and got a nifty phone, organizer, radio, iPod, camera and digital reader, which includes the news in print, audio and video. Would it be worth it? I think so.
Newspaper are still making billions a year, why not some R&D in this direction. However, alas, as the columnist said in Forbes and as Bill Moyers said in a recent interview, it will be produced by some entrepreneur outside the newspaper industry, the leadership of which have both ink-stained hands and ink-stained ways of thinking and operating.
