Print Media Tumbles Again
- Posted by Justin Higgins on November 5th, 2007 in
Bloggers have a habit of heralding the progress of new media, and the downfall of the dinosaurs. By no means have newspapers, network tv, and CNN lost their influence, but they're losing their audience. Recent numbers show that the tumble is continuing:
NEW YORK The Audit Bureau of Circulations released circulation numbers for more than 700 daily newspapers this morning for the six-month period ending September 2007. Of the top 25 papers in daily circulation (see chart, separate story), only four showed gains.
According to an analysis of ABC figures, for 538 daily U.S. newspapers, circulation declined 2.5% to 40,689,617. For 609 papers that filed on Sunday, overall circulation dropped 3.5% to 46,771,486. The percentages are based on comparisons from the same period a year ago.
For The New York Times, daily circulation fell 4.51% to 1,037,828 and Sunday plunged 7.59% to 1,500,394, at least partly due to a price increase.
Not only have the folks at the New York Slime decided to up prices, but they thinned the paper, increased ad costs, and fired some employees. To put it simply, they're making financial moves to stave off collapse, that have only served to hurt the paper more. Their liberal bias and new slogan of "All the Government Secrets that are Fit to Print" can't be helping them in Conservative circles. The dinosaurs are ailing.
The only solution is
The only solution is digitization of print publications. Publication through web, RSS syndication, pod cast is an emerging trend and all publishers should use this features. I found recently a website called www.pressmart.net and this website delivers print publications including newspapers, magazines, journals and catalogs over the new media distribution channels including web editions, mobile editions, podcastable content, RSS feeds, social networking and content aggregation services. Pressmart helps publications execute the new media delivery strategy without getting their feet wet.