Thursday, July 30, 2009

Our newspaper isn't dead yet

There's no question that the newspaper business has been taking it on the chin for the last couple of years, and the recession sometimes feels like the cherry on top (talk about mixed metaphors -- the brass in a knuckle sandwich?). But the Register, perhaps against some pretty stiff headwinds, is at least still profitable, if much less so than in palmier days. This piece from our publisher Terry Horne, who came to us from Freedom's paper in Mesa, AZ about a year ago and whom I really like, explains some of what we're doing to try to stay afloat. It still feels strange to an old dog to be thinking "Web-first," but we're getting used to it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I honestly feel that the decline of newspapers is partly due to political correctness. Look how many newspapers are reluctant to identify the races of criminals and their victims. When eight or nine 17-25 year old black males jump a White guy and beat him senseless amd the press says "group of youths assault man at ATM machine. Suspects were described as about 5' 10" and wearing blue jackets" you have to wonder if journalistic credibility hasn't been compromised to avoid the great taboo of our time - being called a .."racist".

Alan Bock said...

Maybe, but the decline has applied to newspapers of all ideological stripes, with the proximate causes being Craigslist taking away classified ads and Monster.com taking amployment advertising, combined with department stores consolidating, car dealers going to Internet advertising, amplified by the rise of independent news sites and blogs (which feed off newspapers for most of their stories) and being complacent about the potential of the Internet and clinging to a business model that had brought extraordinary profits for almost a century -- plus even more young people than before not getting the newspaper habit.