Monday Note

Well, US papers are doing good in absolute numbers, confirming a shifting model (not necessarily for the best since an online readers brings a fifth or a tenth of the revenue a print readers does). Now, if we put the Internet in the picture, American newspapers are not doing so well. In 2007, the average Web user loaded 51% more Web pages in 2007 than three years earlier, and spent 23% more time online. The equivalent increases for newspaper Web sites were just 24% and 20%, respectively. So newspapers were losing share of the average reader’s total Web activity says Carl Bialik, the “Numbers Guy” columnist of the Wall Street Journal.
> story here

Related columns:

1. US newspapers are gaining readers online According to Nielsen data, US newspapers online audience has grown by 6% last year, with 38% of online users visiting a paper’s site regularly. This evolution is less significant than the corresponding shift in advertising that recorded a 21% growth for online papers vs. a loss of 6% in their print operations. > Story in [...]...
2. The economics of moving from print to online:
   lose one hundred, get back eight Let’s kill a myth. The dream of a compact newsroom, able to output a high-intensity general news website doesn’t fly. Numbers simply don’t add up. And here is why. . First, the cost structure of a daily. In a typical operation, the biggest costs are industrial ones: around 25%-35% for paper and printing; another 30%-40% [...]...
3. The three torpedoes against newspapers Newspapers are dead — they just don’t know it. Says who? A Zogby poll released last week. 67% find traditional journalism “out of touch” and the Internet is the source of news for nearly half of Americans. Does this mean newspapers are dead? No. TV appears, we predict the death of movies, statist countries prevent [...]...
4. US newspapers: Worst drop in ad revenue in 57 years 2007 was the worst year in terms of print ad revenue for American newspapers since record keeping began in 1950. Here are the main facts & figures to bear in mind from the Newspaper Association of America’s last report (tables here ) - Print advertising plunged 9.4% to $42.2bn from $46.6bn in 2006 - Losses [...]...
5. US Elections — Why newspapers endorse candidates ? In 2004, 418 American newspapers (29%) endorsed a candidate. For European readers, there seems to be a contradiction between the don’t-mess-with-the-facts attitude and the open support of a candidate — and call for a specific vote. Rick Stengel, managing editor of Time magazine apparently shares this skepticism. > story in Time{...