Pew: Companies dumping newspapers, 50% ad decline, circulation plummeting
Pew: Companies dumping newspapers, 50% ad decline,
circulation plummeting
By Paul Bedard |
May 24, 2015 | 12:50 pm
The demise of big city print media, displayed in full by
the painfully slow sale of the mammoth New York Daily News, is going nationwide
as ad sales decline 50 percent and circulation plummets, according to a new Pew
Research Center analysis
According to their report, "The Declining Value Of
U.S. Newspapers," just three different media companies in 2014 alone
decided to dump more than 100 newspaper properties. Pew said the companies spun
off the money-losing properties "in large part to protect their still-robust
broadcast or digital divisions."
The Daily News, on the block since February, has yet to
be sold and is now being eyed by Captiol Hill's newspaper The Hill, which may
turn it into a digital operation like the Washington Examiner, Huffington Post,
Brietbart and the Daily Caller.
The Pew report is short and very unsweet:
Over the past two decades, major newspapers across the
country have seen a recurring cycle of ownership changes and steep declines in
value.
The San Diego Union-Tribune was the latest example of
this, as it officially changed ownership hands Thursday for the third time in
six years. This most recent purchase came from Tribune Publishing Co. for the
amount of $85 million (including nine community papers). Still waiting for a buyer
is the 96-year-old New York tabloid the Daily News, which owner Mort Zuckerman
put on the sale block this spring. But there seems to be far from a stampede of
interested buyers.
Steep revenue and circulation declines across the
newspaper industry have left many newspapers struggling. Over the past decade,
weekday circulation has fallen 17% and ad revenue more than 50%. In 2014 alone,
three different media companies decided to spin off more than 100 newspaper
properties, in large part to protect their still-robust broadcast or digital
divisions.
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos may have stunned many with
his $250 million purchase of The Washington Post, which was last sold at
auction in 1933, but other recent sales of major papers show dramatic
devaluation and suggest a tough road ahead for the newspaper industry.
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