PJNet

I started seriously blogging about the possible demise of newspapers back in 2005, after interviewing Phil Meyer, author of the The Vanishing Newspaper: Saving Journalism in the Information Age. Today the New York Times reports that things are worse than anyone imagined even six months ago.

Here is one of quote, which reflects the tone of the story:

“Never in my most bearish dreams six months ago did I think we’d be talking about negative 15 percent numbers against weak comps,” said Peter S. Appert, an analyst at Goldman Sachs. “I think the probability is very high that there will be a number of examples of individual newspapers and newspaper companies that fall into a loss position. And I think it’s inevitable that there will be closures in this industry, and maybe bankruptcies.”

Here is another:

“It’s going a lot worse than anybody predicted, and if we have double-digit ad declines for two years, some newspapers will be in real financial jeopardy,” said Edward Atorino, an analyst at the Benchmark Company. Even with less severe losses, “You’re going to see structural changes: papers could drop a day or two per week, they could outsource printing.”

Here is why:

Analysts and newspaper executives find themselves revising their forecasts downward every few months, unable to gain a stable footing on a sinking floor. Papers have cut costs by shedding thousands of workers, eliminating some distribution routes and printing fewer, smaller pages, but profit margins continue to shrink.

About every year or so I also remind the PJNet.org readers of Jay Rosen’s quote from 2004, this again is apt time to resurrect it:

“The age of the mass media is just that an age. It doesn’t have to last forever.”

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.