The Decline of the Print Newspaper

William Randolph Heart may be rolling in his grave. Not due to the disgrace his great-granddaughter bestowed upon his name and likeness by having her New York Post column ghostwritten, but by the rapid decline of the print newspaper. It was just announced today that the Tribune Company, owned by real estate billionaire Sam Zell, is considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and the Baltimore Sun among other television shows and publications. The L.A. times has already cut 75 newsroom positions in October. Many other papers have followed suit since advertising sales have continued to decrease during the present economic crisis. The Miami Herald laid off 100 workers and The New York Times had to borrow $255 million against its headquarters on 8^th avenue. The company that owns The Times, The McClatchy Co., the nation's third largest newspaper chain is rumored to be looking for potential buyers for both The New York Times and The Miami Herald. Marketing Representatives have cited the scaling back of ad sales to auto companies and local businesses as the largest impact.

The lack of ad revenue has sped up the decline of the newspaper but the decline of subscribers has also contributed. Websites such as craigslist are beating out newspapers when it comes to places to list cars for sale, jobs, personal ads, and even large corporations are turning to them. The Newspaper Association of America reported during the third quarter of 2008 that national as sales were down 18.4 percent, compared to only 2.5% last year. In comparison, magazine ad sales were only down 8.9%. A March 28, 2008 article posted on techcrunch.com noted that this has been the biggest drop in ad revenue since they started tracking annual revenue in 1950.

An August 24, 2006 article in The Economist foresaw the decline of the print paper even prior to the present economic turmoil. The article sited that The Newspaper Association of America reported that the number of people employed in the industry had fell by 18% between 1990 and 2004. Newspapers were trying to attract young readers (whom mostly turn to the internet for their daily news) by printing more sections on entertainment and lifestyle. Well known publications have even turned to the internet and to blogs to supplement their work and it may eventually be that their content must be entirely digital.

While people may associate the media with paparazzi and sleazy entertainment journalists, journalism is an integral part of any democracy. Journalism acts as a watchdog that keeps the people informed. Though the medium through which journalists communicate be changed in time I truly doubt that it will not survive the present economic downturn.