Class Notes, October 22, 2010

Newspaper Circulation

Newspaper Readership (age)

Newspapers, including online,

saw ad revenue fall 26% during the year, which brings

the total loss over the last

three years to 41%.

OK, so newspapers are dying.

Who cares?

What does it matter?

What’s Behind the Fall?

• Craigslist

• Distribution

• Unions

• Stale content

• Lack of innovation

• Culture shift

• Terrible newspaper management

General News/Niche Markets

It is no longer viable to produce a single news product for a

diversified marketplace that expects information to be

personalized and available on demand.

What does a world without newspapers look like?

• End of long-form journalism

• Even less accountability for politicians and corporations

• The end of the shared, “communal news experience”

• A major shift in the “news ecosystem”

So what do you think newspapers should do?

Are paywalls the answer?

Is digital news the answer?

Sadly… not likely

The painful conclusion

A newspaper will be the equivalent of 78 rpm record for my 1 year old

son.

A medium that had its time but no longer exists.

Just because newspapers die does not mean the news

business is dead.

Burn down the old to make way for the new