By Bill Collins, Principal
It’s become sport lately in the industry to predict the demise of newspapers. Talk about kicking a guy when he’s down, although some may see this as a good example of what goes around, comes around.
Newspapers have long been the bastions of power and influence and have to a certain degree lorded this over the rest of the world. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know newspapers have a role in maintaining democracy and making the world a safer place to live but do you have to remind us at every turn of your importance and do you have to be so high-falutin’ about it? Tell me who doesn’t take a little bit of fiendish delight in seeing the likes of the New York Times and Boston Globe squirm as they come to grips with the realities of the interactive age? Long regarded as a license to print money, newspapers are returning to the real world with profit margins, when there are profits, descending from obscene levels to single digits, along with formerly near-usurious ad rates.
Having said all that, the Newspaper Association of America is on the offensive to stem the perception that newspapers will all be gone by year’s end. While acknowledging that newspapers have suffered an economic meltdown in the past two years, the NAA wants everyone to know that they remain a strong and potent force and will emerge from the recession even stronger.
Here are a few of the NAA talking points and a little cynical commentary thrown in by me for good measure:
• More than 104 million adults read a print newspaper every day and that number jumps to 115 million on Sundays.
• 61% of 18-24 year olds and 25-34 year olds read a newspaper in an average week. Comment: Hmm, that’s newspaper, singular. I was reading two newspapers a day, seven days a week when I was at that age.
• Average weekly newspaper readership has declined a mere 1.8% between 2007 and 2008 and about 7% since its peak in 2002. Meanwhile, newspapers’ web audience has grown nearly 75% since 2004, to nearly 73 million unique visitors a month. Comment: And those visitors aren’t paying a dime. Imagine if they could gouge, er, charge for all of that content they give away??
• Newspapers, as individual businesses, by and large remain profitable enterprises with operating margins that Wall Street analysts estimate will generally average in the low to mid teens during 2009. The NAA says that while that may be down from historical highs (holy smokes, how much higher are they in good times?), such margins would be the envy of many other industries today. Comment: So who’s suffering? Profit margins in the low to mid teens and they’re facing “unprecedented financial challenges”? I guess it’s all in your perception and where you sit. Ironic how editorial pages and columnists are so quick to criticize “big business” for excessive profit-taking.
I am a newspaper lover…read three a day without fail and cannot imagine starting my day without the Buffalo News or USA Today spread out in front of me with my breakfast. When I think about what I pay to have a newspaper hand-delivered to my house and the joy and edification I derive from it, I marvel at the bargain.
Saw a funny editorial cartoon a few weeks ago…a guy lugging a keyboard and computer monitor and saying, “I’ll be in the bathroom.” Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
