Moral of the story: The print crisis

Nowadays, newspapers are finding themselves on the front page. One by one, newspapers nationwide are succumbing to tough industry times and shutting down. From reduced readership to plummeting advertising revenue and online competition, publishers are re-evaluating their business structure in order to survive.

Newspaper companies are scrambling to compensate for these serious financial shortfalls. In Denver, Colorado, the Rocky Mountain News was forced to stop production completely. The Denver Post, however, is still hanging on. Others are cutting costs and staff, restructuring debt and even filing for bankruptcy (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun Times). The Ann Arbor News and Seattle Post-Intelligencer switched to digital-only editions to avoid printing and distribution costs.

In Detroit, the Detroit News and Free Press cut back the number of days for home delivery, only offering home delivery on the days with the best advertising sales for their market: Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the remaining days, the papers offer online coverage or newsstand-only distribution for the printed single copy edition paper. While some consider these moves “news suicide,” publisher-conducted surveys found that most loyal readers would accept limited home delivery.

For the time being, newspapers continue to strategize ways to sustain themselves. It’s a tough advertising environment, especially with cuts in employment advertising, automotive ads and real estate. In addition, circulation is continually dropping and newspapers are competing against online news sources that offer free access.

So what’s the moral of the story? Adaptation is key. Like any business, to stay afloat, traditional media outlets must change with the changing economy.

Tags: Advertising, Hellman, Iowa, Marketing, media, newspaper, Public Relations, recession, Waterloo