The truth is that the newspaper business is still a huge industry and will be around in one form or another for the rest of my life. That is not to dismiss the declines, but only to note that there’s still a lot of money there and what is required is strategic change, not giving up the ghost.
This is Chris Anderson (editor of Wired magazine) writing at The Long Tail blog a few days ago about the financial situation for newspapers and how people can still make money from them. It’s an interesting read. Predictably, newspaper folks are talking up the post – see the McClatchy editors blog post on this subject.
What people forget is that industries peak at the top. Which is to say, at the very time that the first and second derivative people are writing off a business, those who can stand back and see the value still left in it can make a mint. Laugh at newspapers if you will, but I’ll bet some private equity firm out there is looking at the chart above and licking their chops.
There is not much in the post from an Australian newsagent perspective other than caution to not become a victim of the new generation of newspaper ownership. Bean counters operate very differently to newspaper proprietors of yesteryear. Lack of newspaper ownership diversity in Australia is protecting (not sure if that is the right word) us (for the moment) from what Anderson writes.
As a newsagent, at the end of the food chain, I want an equitable return from my labour and real-estate investment in newspapers. I need annual growth – from increased sales, better margin or some other direct financial benefit. I the growth is not achieved, the category loses ground and becomes of less interest – especially for shopping centre newsagents paying $1,000 per square metre of floor space and more.