Russ Steele
Jennifer Saba writes in Editor and Publisher the newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.
According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950.
She also writes that Internet ad revenue is slowing, even while is it growing. Typical of the press to emphasis the negative.
There are signs that online revenue is beginning to slow as well. Internet ad revenue in 2007 grew 18.8% to $3.2 billion compared to 2006. In 2006, online ad revenue had soared 31.4% to $2.6 billion. In 2005, it jumped 31.4% to $2 billion.
According to the Union Editor and Publisher these national trends are not impacting local paper as they are in the "sweet spot" of local news. If this is true, why has the A section continued to shrink. It used to be 12 pages in the A section, then 10 pages, and now we are moving toward 8 pages. True there is some variability, but more and more the A section is only 8 pages. Also, the physical size of the A section was shrunk, reducing the number of ads and stories needed for a single section.
I am sure the declining local economy is having an impact on Union revenues. It would be truly sad if we lost our local news paper, so lets get busy and crank up the local economy. Maybe the Union would like to step up to the challenge of getting some community consensus on which economic engines should we focusing on. Once we know where we are going, where "there is" we can decide how to spend our limited economic development budget to get there. Where can we get our most bang for the investment buck. We cannot get there from here until we know where there is. The Union could be big help in framing the our local economic development issues and get a dialog started, then help the community make some important decisions about where "there is, Once we know were we are going it is much easier to figure out a path to success.
If the Union does not think it is there job to help frame the issues. Who's job it it?
