IP Democracy: Dead Trees Die Even Faster

As if anybody needed proof that the newspaper industry is in trouble, the Audit Bureau of Circulation released yesterday statistics that show a plunge in newspaper circulation. Average daily circulation for 770 newspapers was lower in the six-month ended September 30, 2006 than in the comparable time period a year earlier, a drop that is being characterized as one of the steepest on record.

The Los Angeles Times was one of the worst hit newspapers, losing 8% of its daily circulation and 6% of its Sunday circulation. These declines are not good news at all, but I had to smile when I read a press release issued by the Times that characterizes the drop as a result of the paper’s efforts to “improve circulation quality,” as if the Times had weeded out the riff-raff readers. (In truth newspapers have been cutting down on their bulk runs that are aimed at institutions such as hotels.)

Even the solid New York Times lost circulation — 3.5% for both its daily and Sunday editions.

The irony, of course, is that newspaper readership is steady and maybe even on the upswing once the publications’ Internet readers are taken into account. But, most newspapers haven’t been able to figure out how to effectively monetize their web traffic and the result is a newspaper business in decline.

That’s why Tribune (owner of the Los Angeles Times), Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal), and the New York Times, among other dead tree publishers, are exploring sales of their companies to private equity holders. Which may not be a bad thing at all…in the hands of private interests, newspapers could get some breathing room to turn things around, space that they don’t have on the public markets.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on October 31, 2006 7:46 AM to IP Democracy