Newspaper survival (was: Can Citadel Broadcasting survive?)

[Dave Doherty]

One interesting case is that of the car dealers.  They spend very heavily on 
radio, TV, and newspapers. I wonder how they see this playing out.  For now, 
it seems they see all three as being effective. Of course, they also spend 
heavily on the Internet (who doesn't?), but they must see some ability on 
the part of all the traditional media to draw customers into the stores.

-Dave Doherty
 Skywaves, Inc.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sid Schweiger" <sid@wrko.com>
To: "boston Radio Interest" <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 8:32 AM
Subject: Newspaper survival (was: Can Citadel Broadcasting survive?)



>>Print is hurting worse than this, believe it or not. Layoffs all
> around yesterday, with massive cuts at the MediaNews-owned L.A. Daily
> News and its other southern California papers, more cuts at the
> company's San Jose Mercury News due next week, and major layoffs at
> Tribune-owned Newsday (described as a "massacre" in Friday's N.Y.
> Post). Everyone blames the Internet for print's problems; that doesn't
> seem to be playing as prominent a role in radio's struggles.

I suppose broadcast journalists don't think print matters and print
doesn't want to report on themselves.  But I did see an item in
yesterday's Herald about more layoffs at the Globe.<<

If the statistics I've seen are any indication, newspapers are in very, very 
serious trouble.  Their demographics are horrible (essentially, very few 
people under age 55 read a newspaper consistently), and they are losing ad 
dollars left and right to almost all other mass media including the 
Internet.  If you look at the businesses which place all or almost all their 
ad dollars in newspapers, they're the large, institutional advertisers who 
can't cram what they want to advertise into 60- or 30-second spots, or 
banners on a web page...i.e., Sears, Macy's, JC Penney, etc.  Business like 
that spend almost no money in electronic media, and many of them are in 
serious trouble because of it.  One business consultant (in an article on 
AOL) is even predicting the demise of the three I named...*this* year.

I've seen a few predictions from media consultants that any newspaper which 
doesn't make drastic changes to its distribution and business models within 
five years will be out of business.  I have a feeling that's a bit 
exaggerated, but the decline is quite evident and shows no signs of 
reversal.




Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
WAAF/WEEI/WEEI-FM/WKAF/WMKK/WRKO/WVEI/WVEI-FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Brighton MA  02135-2040
P: 617-779-5369
F: 617-779-5379
E: sid@wrko.com