"If a big newspaper in a metropolitan area dropped dead right now, nobody under 30 would care."That's a quote from Mark Potts, whose analysis of the newspaper industry has been updated by Charles Layton. Here's Layton's new guesstimate:
Future Newspaper Ad RevenueAnd his conclusion:
YEAR PRINT ONLINE TOTAL
2007 $42.2 $3.2 $45.4
2008 $38.3 $3.5 $41.8
2009 $34.7 $3.9 $38.6
2010 $31.5 $4.3 $35.8
2011 $28.6 $4.7 $33.3
2012 $25.9 $5.2 $31.1
2013 $23.5 $5.7 $29.2
2014 $21.3 $6.2 $27.5
2015 $19.3 $6.9 $26.2
2016 $17.5 $7.5 $25.0
2017 $15.9 $8.3 $24.2
2018 $14.4 $9.3 $23.7
2019 $13.1 $10.0 $23.1
2020 $11.9 $11.0 $22.9
The dire predictions you have just read gave me no joy to compile and write. If these predictions are anywhere near true, it's hard to see how newspapers can keep supporting the kind of journalism that sustains a democracy. Clearly, we need smart, bold solutions — something that can shake the earth!Maybe a first step would be to give journalist some refresher courses in ethics. Then the papers might wanna make their advertising a bit more user-friendly.
But the main thing, of course, we be to try to regain a bit of credibility.
