Dead as the Trees They Kill
The WSJ has a good roundup of the challenges facing newspapers, including do-not-call, increasing subscription acquisition costs and meek statements from the heads of the papers suggesting that the declines are deliberate and under their control.
The numbers speak for themselves:
"Daily circulation of American newspapers peaked
in 1984 and had fallen nearly 13% to 55.2 million copies in 2003,
according to the Newspaper Association of America. At the same time,
advertising revenue — adjusted for inflation — has barely budged. In
1985, newspaper advertising, adjusted for inflation, was $43.04
billion, not much less than the $44.94 billion reported in 2003. That’s
just 4.4% real growth over 18 years. During that same period, the gross
domestic product, measured in current dollars, grew 161%."
