NY Newsday, a newspaper that focuses on Long Island and New York City, will begin imposing a $5 per week charge on access to its website for many of its news items.
Newsday will continue offering free access to those who have paper subscriptions or who have Internet access via Cablevision, which owns the paper.
Newspapers are struggling to find ways to build revenues as the newspaper industry has failed to figure out how to drive revenue in an age of open access to news items and advertising revenues have fallen off a cliff due to e-bay and Craigslist.
Newsday is hardly the first paper to charge for content. The New York Times attempted to charge for access via its Times Select service, that put may of its op-eds and columnists behind a pay to view wall. It was a miserable failure for the Times, and they dropped the charge.
The Wall Street Journal continues to charge for some of its services, but that's the exception for news content rather than the rule.
Given the way that the Newsday site is arranged, I doubt anyone will miss visiting the news site in favor of other sites and the paper will be forced to reconsider.
Showing posts with label newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label newspapers. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
The Next Bailout? Newspapers?
Members of Congress can't seem to get enough of the bailout bug. The latest idea? Make newspapers nonprofits since they can't seem to turn a profit and they're going out of business all over the country or are being forced into becoming online-only ventures.
Newspapers are in the mess they're in for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that technologies have made paper newspapers seemingly obsolete, including the Internet by which you're actually reading this particular content. You can now access the same information online, and do so for free all while the papers have investments in publishing equipment, factories, and a distribution model that is labor intensive.
The need to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the operations has meant that the newspapers have cut the one area that they have an advantage over a blogger such as myself - dedicated reporters on the beat. They've closed foreign bureaus, consolidated local bureaus, or just straight out fired people and gone to online only ventures where the "paper" simply repackages content from other sources.
More to the point, this move increases government intrusion into industry - this time journalism, and hopes to prop them up. What do the taxpayers get in return? Cardin thinks the trade off of requiring the newspapers to be nonpartisan will be satisfactory, but that's total bunk since the editorial spin of the papers will continue in the way that they choose to cover the issues. It will still veer to the left.
Some folks are already printing the epitaphs for the newspaper industry. Because newspapers are so heavily reliant on advertising and classified ads for revenues, a drop in either can spell serious financial trouble. In the current environment, we're seeing both, not only because of the recession, but because newspapers have been circumvented on both classified and advertising - online outlets like Craiglist have trumped the once ubiquitous newspaper classified ad. Want ads are now carried by Monster.com, careerbuilder.com, etc. Why go to a newspaper for that information? More and more people are coming to that conclusion as well.
It's hard to argue with that, given that the newspaper industry has been suffering for years as Internet access to information has grown easier and content now includes more than just words or photos - you can now get streaming content on cellphones and portable devices, making the paper obsolete.
Vodkapundit seems to think that this is a quid pro quo for the incurious look at the porkfest that passed last month along with why no one made a serious examination of what was contained in the legislation that was signed without anyone in Congress or the White House reading the whole thing.
So, why is Cardin so intent on saving an industry that can't seem to change to adapt to the new technologies? What's in it for us?
Well, there is one thing that can be said for having multiple news sources - and that's verification of news reports rather than a centralized and solitary source of news that results in biased and agenda driven reporting (moreso than the current news is). Because there are multiple news outlets, there's a certain amount of accountability, which would be lost as more newspapers and media outlets go out of business. That's particularly true in areas that are serviced by a single newspaper. Local news would be especially hard hit, but Cardin's bill does not address the fact that people will still find other ways to find the news online - circumventing the newspapers altogether.
With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.Why is the government trying to hold back the clock on newspapers? What special right do newspapers have to being considered a nonprofit entity? Why should the tax code be altered so as to give companies like the New York Times, Fox, Gannett, or Newhouse a nonprofit status for their newspaper operations?
"This may not be the optimal choice for some major newspapers or corporate media chains but it should be an option for many newspapers that are struggling to stay afloat," said Senator Benjamin Cardin.
A Cardin spokesman said the bill had yet to attract any co-sponsors, but had sparked plenty of interest within the media, which has seen plunging revenues and many journalist layoffs.
Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.
Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.
Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.
Because newspaper profits have been falling in recent years, "no substantial loss of federal revenue" was expected under the legislation, Cardin's office said in a statement.
Newspapers are in the mess they're in for any number of reasons, not the least of which is that technologies have made paper newspapers seemingly obsolete, including the Internet by which you're actually reading this particular content. You can now access the same information online, and do so for free all while the papers have investments in publishing equipment, factories, and a distribution model that is labor intensive.
The need to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the operations has meant that the newspapers have cut the one area that they have an advantage over a blogger such as myself - dedicated reporters on the beat. They've closed foreign bureaus, consolidated local bureaus, or just straight out fired people and gone to online only ventures where the "paper" simply repackages content from other sources.
More to the point, this move increases government intrusion into industry - this time journalism, and hopes to prop them up. What do the taxpayers get in return? Cardin thinks the trade off of requiring the newspapers to be nonpartisan will be satisfactory, but that's total bunk since the editorial spin of the papers will continue in the way that they choose to cover the issues. It will still veer to the left.
Some folks are already printing the epitaphs for the newspaper industry. Because newspapers are so heavily reliant on advertising and classified ads for revenues, a drop in either can spell serious financial trouble. In the current environment, we're seeing both, not only because of the recession, but because newspapers have been circumvented on both classified and advertising - online outlets like Craiglist have trumped the once ubiquitous newspaper classified ad. Want ads are now carried by Monster.com, careerbuilder.com, etc. Why go to a newspaper for that information? More and more people are coming to that conclusion as well.
It's hard to argue with that, given that the newspaper industry has been suffering for years as Internet access to information has grown easier and content now includes more than just words or photos - you can now get streaming content on cellphones and portable devices, making the paper obsolete.
Vodkapundit seems to think that this is a quid pro quo for the incurious look at the porkfest that passed last month along with why no one made a serious examination of what was contained in the legislation that was signed without anyone in Congress or the White House reading the whole thing.
So, why is Cardin so intent on saving an industry that can't seem to change to adapt to the new technologies? What's in it for us?
Well, there is one thing that can be said for having multiple news sources - and that's verification of news reports rather than a centralized and solitary source of news that results in biased and agenda driven reporting (moreso than the current news is). Because there are multiple news outlets, there's a certain amount of accountability, which would be lost as more newspapers and media outlets go out of business. That's particularly true in areas that are serviced by a single newspaper. Local news would be especially hard hit, but Cardin's bill does not address the fact that people will still find other ways to find the news online - circumventing the newspapers altogether.
Monday, December 08, 2008
The Decline and Fall of Modern Newspapers
The New York Times is fortunate. They have a shiny new office tower that they can borrow nearly $225 million against in order to keep the newspaper operations afloat. The problem is that the actual value of the company is pretty much contingent upon the price of that office building (the land for which was procured via eminent domain for those that want to revisit recent history).
The Miami Herald is up for sale. The Newark Star Ledger was up for sale and considering bankruptcy but instead settled on massive layoffs and combining some business operations with the Times of Trenton.
The same can't be said for the Tribune company, which runs dozens of papers across the country, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. They're considering bankruptcy protection. Of course, it was the Wall Street Journal who broke that news. The Tribune Company has hired bankruptcy specialists to figure out the next step.
The New York Sun already folded, showing that the problems aren't confined to the liberal side of the paper industry.
So, what's brought about the impending failure of so many newspapers, including some of the most prestigious and well recognized US papers in the nation?
Well, there's no easy answer but there are several causes.
(1) The media outlets showcased their unending bias and the public got turned off, choosing not to buy the papers.
(2) Consumers finally got tired of buying stale news when they could obtain it online at a lower cost - namely free.
(3) Advertising revenues have fallen year over year as the papers have not figured out a way to profit from Internet sales. Craigslist has proven to be a newspaper killer because it does the classified ad better than the papers can. In a booming economy, advertising will pour into newspapers, but with the market turning sour, advertisers are looking for more bang to the buck, and will curtail their expenditures.
UPDATE:
Via Patterico, Tribune has filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. It plans on restructuring the company's debts and financial picture.
The Miami Herald is up for sale. The Newark Star Ledger was up for sale and considering bankruptcy but instead settled on massive layoffs and combining some business operations with the Times of Trenton.
The same can't be said for the Tribune company, which runs dozens of papers across the country, including the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. They're considering bankruptcy protection. Of course, it was the Wall Street Journal who broke that news. The Tribune Company has hired bankruptcy specialists to figure out the next step.
The New York Sun already folded, showing that the problems aren't confined to the liberal side of the paper industry.
So, what's brought about the impending failure of so many newspapers, including some of the most prestigious and well recognized US papers in the nation?
Well, there's no easy answer but there are several causes.
(1) The media outlets showcased their unending bias and the public got turned off, choosing not to buy the papers.
(2) Consumers finally got tired of buying stale news when they could obtain it online at a lower cost - namely free.
(3) Advertising revenues have fallen year over year as the papers have not figured out a way to profit from Internet sales. Craigslist has proven to be a newspaper killer because it does the classified ad better than the papers can. In a booming economy, advertising will pour into newspapers, but with the market turning sour, advertisers are looking for more bang to the buck, and will curtail their expenditures.
UPDATE:
Via Patterico, Tribune has filed for bankruptcy in Delaware. It plans on restructuring the company's debts and financial picture.
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