For the purveyors of print news, the news is bad. Fifteen years after the introduction of the commercial Internet era, the writing is on the wall and far less of it will be found in the pages. The Tribune Company, publisher of many of America’s finest newspapers, most notably the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, has decided to radically cut back on the size and scope of its daily print editions. CEO Sam Zell and COO Randy Michaels made the announcement in Chicago late last week citing rising publishing costs and rapidly declining revenues.
In the future, readers in Chicago and Los Angeles, along with smaller cities like Baltimore, Orlando and Hartford will receive much smaller newspapers written and produced by much smaller newsroom staffs. Instead of well researched and documented reports or stories of national or international importance, readers can expect to see more local coverage with a splash of color graphics, much like in USA Today.
The object is to save what’s left of a business model that would have been rewritten if print could compete with pixels. The bottom line is simple. The costs associated with a professional print publication are too high and opportunities to recover costs through advertising now too few for traditional newspapers to continue to operate as they once did. The birth of the Internet spells doom for the printed word.
From an ecological standpoint, this can be considered a positive step forward. Less newsprint means more mature trees. Fewer newspapers mean fewer delivery trucks burning oil. Fewer reporters driving from suburban homes to downtown offices.
From the standpoint of an informed society however, the reduction of the great national newspapers is harmful and extremely dangerous. Without information and the eagle eyed reporters who ferret it out, we the people are less able to best perform our civic duties or meet our commercial responsibilities. In short, we become a dumber society.
Ironically, as the Tribune Company moves to cut costs by cutting service, the number of news readers is actually increasing. While every print newspaper company reports loses in printed paper readership, the online versions of those papers are seeing more visitors every day. Advertising is far less expensive online than in print and thus the revenues of news gathering organizations are in sharp decline.
The online version of newspapers, by and large, do not sell their own advertising space outside of the shrinking classified sections. Many outsource their advertising needs to the big display ad networks DoubleClick, RightMedia or aQuantive, each of which is owned and operated by the three major search engines. In the case of the Tribune Company, display ads on their web-editions are augmented by Google AdWords.
Unfortunately at this time, there are no simple solutions for the major news gathering organizations. Costs are up and revenues are down across the board. Craigslist, and other online advertising venues have taken the traditional micro-advertising outlet, the classifieds, along with its audience. The gravy train has thus fallen off the tracks and there is not enough muscle to right it.
This is not just the Trib’s problem. What we are seeing however is the first of the giants starting to visibly fall. National and international coverage will be anemic with heavy reliance on wire services such as AP or Reuters and far less analysis from seasoned reporters who understand how a larger story might effect a local population.
The news for the Trib ain’t good. As goes the Trib, so goes the rest of the pack. Ultimately, that’s bad news for everyone.
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