While there have been a great deal of articles predicting the coming demise of the newspaper industry, there are also those who also see the industry in a great position to successfully transition to the new world of news dissemination. The San Diego Union-Tribune has an article that says when you factor in the growing readership of the web along with the traditional circulation rates – you have a very viable and thriving news business.
But amid all this dour news for the old gray ladies of the media world is a ray of hope, courtesy of the new economy. Newspaper Web sites are attracting visitors in record numbers and have posted double-digit revenue gains in each of the past five years.
Editor and Publisher also posted a story also suggesting that when you look factor in online news ‘readership’ the newspaper industry is doing well.
Because of the opportunities afforded by a growing online audience, as well as a push to restore credibility to print circulation numbers following last year’s circ scandals, efforts to exploit new methods of measurement are being encouraged. Not only is the industry emphasizing readership, but also total audience, which takes Web readers into account.
“We have for years allowed ourselves to be held hostage to one metric only,” says Jay R. Smith, chairman of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) and president of Cox Newspapers Inc. “Newspapers have for the last couple of years been finding whole new pockets of audiences for which they get no credit.”
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