Newspaper Circulation Continues Decline

Reposted as history. Originally posted in May of 2005.

Newspaper Circulation Continues Decline, Forcing Tough Decisions
By Julia Angwin and Joseph T. Hallinan - Staff Reporters - The Wall Street Journal - May 2, 2005

The biggest publishers may show the largest declines: Gannett Co., which owns about 100 newspapers, says it will be down "a couple of points" from last year's levels. Circulation at Tribune Co.'s Los Angeles Times is likely to be off in excess of 6% of its most recently reported figures. Belo Corp.'s Dallas Morning News expects to report daily circulation down 9% and Sunday circulation down 13% from the year-earlier period.

The Newspaper Industry is looking for some way to reverse their decline. However the reality is that the problem is not a simple one. There are both structural and perception issues to deal with.

Though there is a tendency to blame the problem on the Internet (and to a lesser extent Cable), it is important that the newspaper editors and publishers get a better grasp on what that means. The major source of newspaper revenue, advertising, has always been in competition with the Yellow Pages. They simply had an advantage in being able to produce their ad pages daily instead of once a year. The Internet is penetating this basic type of business advertising dramatically as the instantaneous update nature of the Internet gives it an advantage over both Yellow Pages and Newpapers. Both will suffer.

In addition movies, autos and job ads are being penetrated heavily by the Internet, as the search capabilities make them so much easier to use than the newspaper.

However the splashy part of newspapers has always been the front page and editorials. When you say newspapers, that is what both the newspaper people and the public think of first. However two factors have damaged newspaper's perception here. First, news reporters are heavily liberal, biased and blind to their bias. Thus they alienate half of their customers with most of what they write. Secondly they have lost their monopoly, and the ability to chastise them for their errors has become simple and easy due to the blogs. This has created resentment on the part of reporters. These two factors have left the newspaper people with a reputation among their customers for being arrogant and out of touch, a perception that will not go away by arguing that it is not fair. As a former boss noted, arguing with your customer that he is wrong is a bad way to try to sell him something.

When times are changing you need goodwill to get through the problems. It is ironic that newspapers reject the need for fixing these two perception issues as a precursor to dealing with the structural changes in their industry. However that really says that the preception of arrogance is justified. The article is right when it says that tough decisions are needed.

So far newspapers have not indicated they are ready.