Newspaper circulation continues to fall
It’s always important to note in these instances that online traffic for newspapers is way up and continues to grow. But recent reports show that actual print circulation continues to decline:
According to industry sources, overall daily circulation for the six months ending March 2007 is expected to sink approximately 2.5% while Sunday will drop around 3.0%.
Yet again, major metro papers are bearing the brunt of the responsibility for the declines. Papers that are showing daily drops of 5% or more, according to circulation sources, include: The Dallas Morning News, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union-Tribune, The Star Ledger in Newark, N.J., The Orange County (Calif.) Register, The Austin American-Statesman, the San Jose Mercury News, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
Despite the growing web traffic, this is still a major problem for newspapers, since advertising dollars are not flowing online as quickly. Add to this the fact that Craigslist is stealing a lot of classified ad revenue, then you can see why many industry analysts are worried.
I don’t see how newspapers can possibly survive.
At first people were reluctant to read stuff on a monitor, but that’s changing all the time and it’s becoming increasingly “normal”. My opinion only.
When did I last read something printed on a dead tree? Hmmm, no idea.