Where have the newspapers all gone?

Data for 2008

There is no way to escape the recent news of more and more newspapers going bankrupt. The recent closings of the Examiner and Rocky Mountain News are some of the latest victims, with more newspapers on the horizon. These papers are all victims of among other causes declining circulation and reduced ad revenues partly due to the economic down turn. Additionally, if the writing quality is poor, circulation will contract regardless of the economic environment.

Contracting Newspaper Circulation

The rise of the web and the ubiquity of freely available online news content in various formats - RSS feeds, web portals, online versions of "news TV" sites, and even online versions of the newspapers themselves – are now competitors to the more traditional physical paid-for and even free newspapers. Clearly, the freely available online content is now dramatically impacting print based newspapers circulation. While I was brought up on reading the daily newspaper, I have embraced the new online model and have never personally subscribed to a physical newspaper. (Plus, I am helping the environment by reducing my paper waste – even if it can be recycled.)

Magazines – Immune or lag
I even recently decided to let my magazine subscriptions expire, as these companies now have websites that provide the same content. Interestingly enough, I have found that these sites tend to be even better than the physical magazine, since I can easily jump to the information that I like and skip everything else. Based on this thought, I wondered if magazine subscription circulation was declining as well. A Google search provided me with this link that indicated that subscriptions as of 2007 have not declined, and in fact are rising. While this data does not include numbers from 2008, a careful review of the data shows a sizeable decline between 2000 and 2003 (Dot com bust anyone?). I wonder if 2009 and subsequent years will show that the decline in the magazine industry is just a few steps behind the newspapers.

The Next Step
It is unfortunate that newspapers – and maybe magazines - are the next casualty to the Web 2.0 environment. However, if the true idea behind running a newspaper is to disseminate news to its readers, the online model continues to accomplish this goal. I do wonder if some traditional newspapers will find success in shifting to a completely online model.

Here is an interesting article by the Washington Post that summarizes my points.