You’ve probably read that, when someone dies, his nails and hair keep growing for a while.
That’s what’s happening with newspapers. Their physical, paper products — their hair and nails — keep being delivered. But it’s only a matter of months before that will stop. In fact, newspapers are already dead.
I suspect that, within 6 months, a major newspaper with more than 200,000 circulation will just stop printing. Then a stampede will follow, as dozens stop the presses permanently and go entirely online.
Newsosaur, the indispensable source on newspaper news, reports (online, of course):
The 16% decline in print sales in the second quarter of this year surpassed the prior record plunge of 14.4% in the first quarter of 2008. The drop in the first quarter of this year was larger than the slide in the last quarter of 2007. And so forth.
Nor are newspapers getting the Internet right:
The record 14% sales plunge featured the first-ever drop in online sales. Interactive revenues slipped by 2.3% in the second quarter of this year to $776.6 million. For the entire first half, online sales rose a modest $35 million, or 2.3%, to a bit less than $1.6 billion.
This has happened even as a news-drenched election year has seen online readers more glued to the Web than ever.
Having spent most of my working years at newspapers, I’d offer some advice on newspapers, as I have in the past. But now there isn’t any point.
The only thing left to do is to play taps…
Posts
