Bronte Media

Paper prices continue to be the primary driver of newspaper change. Knight Ridder’s latest comments tells a sorry story.

Ad revenue up 1.2%, paper prices up 9.1%.

The price of paper is the primary cost of a newspaper. In a very simple sense, unless advertising revenue grows in step the business goes backwards. They need to cut costs elsewhere. But in the end there is only so much to cut.

This sadly is the true motivating force for newspapers to embrace the Internet. Fear not greed. But at least there is something motivating them.