You can stumble into it, too, by going here:
Tracking the Newspaper Industry's Decline
Mull this sobering excerpt:
"Despite 27 percent year-over-year newspaper online revenue growth in July — as compared with shrinking print revenue — online still only accounts for 7 percent of the total. (For context, the total monthly online revenue for the entire public newspaper industry amounts to approximately 15 percent of Google's monthly U.S. revenue). Put differently, the newspaper industry lost $83 million of print advertising revenue year-over-year in July — and gained only $23 million of online ad revenue. Online won't save this industry with numbers like that.
Now, the site makes a distinction: It is only analyzing publicly held companies like The New York Times (NYT), Dow Jones (DJ), Lee Enterprises (LEE), The McClatchy Company (MNI), Gannett (GCI) and Tribune (TBC). Still, the analysis is staggering.
My 2 cents: The daily newspaper industry has to quit believing its own hype on Internet success both in fairness to its investors and to more accurately weigh its successes and failures.
Even those employed at privately held companies need to ensure a fair return for their owners and as the year's third quarter rolls into its final month, there must be renewed pressure for a new transparency in reports. One revealing sentiment in the Silicon Alley Insider from Monday: "Every day we read about how amazingly fast newspaper web sites are growing, how newspaper reporters are now blogging like crazy, how newspaper online revenue is soaring, etc. And all of this is true. The trouble is — it's barely making a difference."
It is as if some in the daily newspaper industry believe that any random, manic action can somehow supplant a well-conceived plan based on audience feedback and intuitive goals. Still others are blindly striking down paths, often fueled only by their own desires (which is why you have a lot of newspaper Web sites seemingly aimed at appealing to white guys in their 40's or 50's).
Then there is the most insidious mistaken notion of all: The rampant naivete that prevents daily newspaper leadership from comprehending that a given newspaper Web site is little more than one of many destinations for many different online demographic communities, not the sole destination, let alone a starting point.
Why? Because thats how these Web sites were designed. Why? Because the daily newspaper industry is following the path of others in the daily newspaper industry. Why? Because the daily newspaper industry is convinced that it can heal itself.
As revenue and profits decline, one is left to ponder: Will the daily newspaper industry be allowed to cannibalize itself and, by extension, its shareholders? Or, will a different path emerge?
More later,
Mark
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