Maybe it’s the cloudy, rainy weather today in Virginia that’s got me bummed out.
Or, maybe it’s AdAge.
The publication has started a series called “The Newspaper Deathwatch,” the first article of which appeared today. Today’s installment, which may set the tone for the series, focused on the “industry’s travails.” Those included changes to the New York Times Co. board, paper width and height shrinkage and numbers about the decline in classified advertising. The latter third of the article is more positive, albeit muted.
The term “deathwatch,” also being used by Slate in reference to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, suggests that those writing the articles made their conclusions before they started reporting It’s true that newspapers won’t ever have huge profit margins again, print circulation is declining and The (Madison) Capital Times is just the latest newspaper to stop printing the daily edition.
But, there’s new life coming. Newspaper content is already appearing in online videos, mobile applications and Google News. Newspaper companies are innovating, and many newspaper executives are focusing much more on digital media for both readers and revenue. Fifty years from now, people will still need the community information and connection newspaper companies can provide– it just will be in another format.
I hope AdAge’s Deathwatch series includes an article on reincarnation.
It's a terminal decline, if you believe experts such as Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California at Annenberg. His research suggests traditional media in general must learn to shrink but newspapers in particular are a special case. "When an offline reader of a paper dies, he or she is not being replaced by a new reader," he said. "How much time do they have? We think they have 20 to 25 years."
Of course, newspaper owners aren't going to just give up and wait -- and that's why Ad Age is launching this series about the 1,437 dailies still working hard in the U.S. It'll look at the thought leaders in the industry, their attempts to leave the past -- and even formats -- behind and their strategies for finding new business models.
But let's start with the industry's travails, because the news last week was full of them….