Take a look at the headlines on Editor & Publisher or talk to any newspaper employee and it’s easy to see how bad the situation for newspapers is getting. No one seems to argue that point, but what seems up for debate is why.
In a recent newsroom discussion about changes at our paper, one senior editor pointed to the changes as a result of the worldwide economic downturn. She isn’t alone in her thinking. A group of newspaper execs started newspaperproject.org, a blog dedicated to rejecting “the notion that newspapers—and the valuable content that newspaper journalists provide—have no future.â€
In an Editor & Publisher article about the website one of the execs said “Newspapers don’t have an audience problem… Newspapers have a revenue problem, driven primarily by the recession.â€
It would appear that they might be a little off. I’m sure the recession accelerated the problem, but without the recession we would by no means be flying high.
The good news here is that the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. After all it was only six months ago that a lot of newspaper executives were not willing to admit that there was even a revenue problem.
(Side note: The idea of coming out with a blog because you are not happy with the media coverage you are getting seems a little ironic for newspapers.)