Newspapers Are In The News

The newspaper industry itself has been making a lot of headlines recently. This is a resilient industry, but it is in the middle of overwhelming change. Revenues are down. Newspaper industry stock valuations have plummeted to an all-time nadir. The Internet and other technologies have profoundly affected all 4 P’s of marketing for this industry (or its more modern perspective the 4 C’s).

Most of the revenue growth for newspapers is coming from the online side, but it hasn’t made up for the losses on the offline side. Online readership is growing for most newspapers and, in fact, Internet-only readers are become a sizeable portion of the total audience.

Newspapers, like most traditional media, are caught between competing business models: the old way of doing business on the print side and the new way of doing business on the Web. However, as this ClickZ story notes, “The motherlode is still print.” Even though the growth is on the Internet, old habits die hard for those who are used to their morning paper. This New York Times article points out how dependent most people still are on traditional newspaper-based coupons to do their shopping.

A story yesterday by Tom Mohr on Editor and Publisher clearly sets the priorities and urgency for the newspaper industry. Titled, “Winning Online—A Manifesto,” Mohr says the newspaper industry needs nothing less than their own version of the Marshall Plan to ensure their future. It’s a great read.