It’s tough out there in newspaper land. The Chicago Tribune… The Rocky Mountain News… The Seattle Post Intelligencer… and the list marches on. What’s happening here?
According to a Pew Research Center study, for the first time, more Americans got their news online for free than paid for it in magazines and newspapers!
Newspapers predominantly make their money through newsstand sales, subscriptions and advertising. With the first two of the legs being kicked out from under them, the business model begins to fall apart. And with declining readership comes declining advertising revenue and the stool collapses.
Selling online advertising has helped newspapers offset the steady decline in print, but it’s a supplement, not a meal. This leaves newspapers looking for alternate methods of generating revenue to continue publishing content created by professional writers. These days anyone can put up a blog. But paid editorial staffs are a good thing. It pays for trained journalists, their expenses and important little things like real editors and fact checking. "Ideally" this translates to quality.
And the decline in revenue leaves the papers weak and vulnerable to special interest pressures. Just ask the San Diego Union Tribune which was recently pressured by the Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters pension fund (which owns $30 million of Platinum Equity, Tribune’s parent company) to change its editorial stance or fire its writers. "Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," said League President Paul M. Weber. Wow.
But getting people to pay for content and attracting advertisers is getting harder and harder. So what are the alternatives? Lots of ideas are being kicked around. Says Dallas Mavricks owner, Mark Cuban, “The quickest and easiest place to start would be by making sure that every time I went to DallasNews.com you knew that my credit card was on file and you offered me specials… If some local artist has a small or large hit, go to the label and try to license it and offer it for free to those of us who pay by card.”
Others have suggested offering section sponsorships: the Lakers or Raiders for example sponsor the LA Times sports section… or Staples the business section, or – well, you get the idea. Or what about partnering with an outfit like coupons.com? And there are dozens of others.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal announced a “sophisticated micro-payments service” to launch this fall. There have been quite a few failed Internet micro-payment systems. And this is the first time a major newspaper adopted one, so the other big papers will be watching closely.
But for now, local online advertising is, and search engine marketing services are, the shining star helping many papers stay afloat.
-- Contributed by Jeff Werner
According to a Pew Research Center study, for the first time, more Americans got their news online for free than paid for it in magazines and newspapers!
Newspapers predominantly make their money through newsstand sales, subscriptions and advertising. With the first two of the legs being kicked out from under them, the business model begins to fall apart. And with declining readership comes declining advertising revenue and the stool collapses.Selling online advertising has helped newspapers offset the steady decline in print, but it’s a supplement, not a meal. This leaves newspapers looking for alternate methods of generating revenue to continue publishing content created by professional writers. These days anyone can put up a blog. But paid editorial staffs are a good thing. It pays for trained journalists, their expenses and important little things like real editors and fact checking. "Ideally" this translates to quality.
And the decline in revenue leaves the papers weak and vulnerable to special interest pressures. Just ask the San Diego Union Tribune which was recently pressured by the Los Angeles police officers and fire fighters pension fund (which owns $30 million of Platinum Equity, Tribune’s parent company) to change its editorial stance or fire its writers. "Since the very public employees they continually criticize are now their owners, we strongly believe that those who currently run the editorial pages should be replaced," said League President Paul M. Weber. Wow.
But getting people to pay for content and attracting advertisers is getting harder and harder. So what are the alternatives? Lots of ideas are being kicked around. Says Dallas Mavricks owner, Mark Cuban, “The quickest and easiest place to start would be by making sure that every time I went to DallasNews.com you knew that my credit card was on file and you offered me specials… If some local artist has a small or large hit, go to the label and try to license it and offer it for free to those of us who pay by card.”
Others have suggested offering section sponsorships: the Lakers or Raiders for example sponsor the LA Times sports section… or Staples the business section, or – well, you get the idea. Or what about partnering with an outfit like coupons.com? And there are dozens of others.
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal announced a “sophisticated micro-payments service” to launch this fall. There have been quite a few failed Internet micro-payment systems. And this is the first time a major newspaper adopted one, so the other big papers will be watching closely.
But for now, local online advertising is, and search engine marketing services are, the shining star helping many papers stay afloat.
-- Contributed by Jeff Werner
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