The Associated Press has a story about the impact in Detroit when two newspapers moved from daily to publishing three days a week.
More than a year later, Detroit newspaper executives are convinced they made the right call. If that holds up, other newspapers could follow as they look for ways to save money to offset a three-year slump in advertising, the industry’s main source of revenue. About 100 U.S. newspapers already have reduced the number of days they publish or have shifted exclusively to Web editions, but Detroit is the biggest market to try a version of either move.
Our home delivery model is quite different here, I suspect because newsagents carry more of the distribution cost than do newspaper carriers in the US, so the pressure to cut days from the print schedule is not as great.
Those who seek to lead newsagents should be researching these moves in the US, as I noted at this place a year ago.
I have been in this business 10 years in a small town. Many of the regular reader of 10 years ago have now died and their are no new readers takint there place. My own children never read a paper and the youngest regular would be about 40 so with not new readers there will be less need for papers. I do have a big readership of our little local paper that is published once a week. Its local and it keeps local in touch.
Detroit is not a good example to support this pessimistic point of view. Detroit’s economy relies almost totally on the US automotive industry. It has been a city in significantv decline for a number of years. The recent GFC accelerated that decline. Unemployment is unbelievably high, up to 35% in some suburbs. Average property values have plummeted by over 40% since 2008, with houses in some areas changing hands for only $2.00 (yes, thats two dollars).
If we really want to pursue Detroit as an example of the decline of hard media we should also look at its growth (plus or minus) in internet delivered news.
The real problem in Detroit is that a lot more people have a lot less to spend.
Off topic, sorry.
Has anyone else been copping short GCB deliveries almost on a daily basis for the last few weeks in SEQ?
And then not having shortage reports acknowledged, or accounts adjusted accordingly.
Some interesting conclusions could arise from whether or not others are getting this too.
It’s getting a bit old, now. But we’ll just have to keep faxing, and checking our bills.