Not Fit To Print – Are Newspapers Dying?
Buffett, New York Times Comments Might Be Harbingers Of Doom
May 4, 2009
According to an article titled "Business Musings From Woodstock for Capitalists" dated May 5, 2009 on Wall Street Journal Online Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett said "For most newspapers in the United States, we would not buy them at any price," he said. "They have the possibility of going to just unending losses." Mr. Buffett's company current holds an interest in The Washington Post as part of its portfolio but only because the Post owns a cable company.
With So Many Choices, Who Needs The Paperboy?
When the Internet took off in the mid 1990s newspapers recognized it as an opportunity to expand their customer base. Some of them, like the New York Times, were smart enough to charge a fee for subscribers to their online edition. Most of them, in the interest of not alienating loyal customers, let users read the online edition at no extra charge but sacrificed a great deal of revenue.
Thanks in part to the declining economy advertisers no longer have a huge budget to devote to newspaper advertising which also accounts for a great deal of revenue. With people using the Internet in droves it made sense for newspapers such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to go to an online-only edition. Currently, the Times' ownership is threatening to shut down the Boston Globe, despite concerns from former Presidential candidate John Kerry, citing $85 million in losses. ("Times Co says won't shut Boston Globe today", Reuters, 3/5/09)
If People Didn't Have the Morning Paper What Would They Do?
For over a century it's been a ritual across America. Coffee, breakfast and the morning newspaper. But has the decline of the traditional newspaper also a sign of the times? The trend toward a greener planet encourages recycling. Newspapers have tried to keep in step (and unwittingly have as they have gotten thinner thanks to the lack of ad revenue) but it's up to the consumer to remember to put them in the recycling bin. Looking at the news on a computer or a television screen is about as green as it gets.
Also, those that still have jobs in this economy have to go in earlier and stay later, resulting in a reorganizing of priorities. After getting the kids off to school and shoving a bagel down for breakfast the morning paper collects dust until people try to scan it in the five minutes they have free in the evenings. When it comes to do the monthly budget newspaper costs are usually the first to go as they increasingly become a luxury instead of a necessity. Also, with online newspapers many people consider this duplication. Why pay twice for the same product?
In 2040 Newspapers May Only be In Museums
Thirty years from now the economy's current malaise should (hopefully!) be over. But one likely casualty of the times is the newspaper. With so many options available from Internet-only local news to 24/7 national cable news outlets the venerable printed page is fighting a losing battle and gasping for its last breath.
