Doomsday: Mainstream Media

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September 23, 2017: Time Inc selling some assets including Time Inc UK; won't sell its namesake Time; also publishes Sports Illustrated, People magazine. Sounds like keeping Time (US) was an emotional decision, not a business decision. 

September 17, 2017: The Rolling Stone magazine is up for sale. 

May 31, 2017: NYT offers buyout offers to its newsroom editors. Something tells me the folks at The Washington Post are thrilled with their multi-billionaire owner.

January 17, 2017: NYT -- not out of the woods, yet.

November 12, 2015: The sheer numbers of print's downfall are depressing:

• there are half as many people reporting on the news than four decades ago, to just over 32,000
• daily newspapers have gone from a high of nearly 1,800 in 1945 to about 400
• circulation per capita has dropped below 15 percent

TV and radio are still important, but their listeners and viewers have also fallen greatly.

May 24, 2015: from The Washington Examiner:

The demise of big city print media, displayed in full by the painfully slow sale of the mammoth New York Daily News, is going nationwide as ad sales decline 50 percent and circulation plummets.

According to [the Pew] report, "The Declining Value Of U.S. Newspapers," just three different media companies in 2014 alone decided to dump more than 100 newspaper properties. Pew said the companies spun off the money-losing properties "in large part to protect their still-robust broadcast or digital divisions.

December 23, 2014: the sad march of layoffs at The New York Times has begun. 

December 16, 2014: layoffs at The New York Times begin today. 

October 13, 2014: MSNBC in freefall. 

October 7, 2014: CNN axes 300 jobs. This is not trivial -- it represents 10% of the targeted workforce.

October 1, 2014: New York Times to eliminate 100 newsroom jobs.

September 20, 2014: The New York Times may be mulling 50 more buyouts.


August 8, 2014: the WSJ reports magazine sales in US drop 12% in 1H14 from a year earlier; paid subscripotions dropped 2%.

April 25, 2014: newspaper ad revenue continued its precipitous free fall in 2013, and it's not over yet.

April 25, 2014: Ladies Home Journal calls it quits after 131 years.

February 9, 2014: French left-wing Liberation failing financially; sales plummeted 15% in 2013, largest slide among French newspapers; owners throwing in the towel with thoughts to turn newspaper, building into "social media." 

February 6, 2014: Earnings plummet at The New York Times. Does anyone care?

January 16, 2014: Two southern California newspapers in trouble.

December 30, 2013: TimeWarner to spin off Time magazine. The beginning of the end. 

December 2, 2013: The New York Times reports that New York Magazine will cut back from its weekly edition to every other week; a blurb is provided at this post.

June 17, 2013: LA Times is reporting:

Tribune Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, reported that earnings have fallen steeply over the past two years as print advertising continues to erode in a troubled newspaper market.

The company on Monday reported net income of $422.5 million for the 12 months ended Dec. 31. That’s down 5.7% from $447.9 million in 2011 and off 20.7% from $533 million in 2010.

The newspaper unit’s ad revenue skidded almost $200 million, or 14.5%, over the last two years. It declined $84 million, or 7%, last year, after falling 8% in 2011. In addition to The Times, the company owns the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and five other daily newspapers.

April 4, 2013: Cleveland.com is reporting:

Ohio's largest newspaper will seek to compete in the digital age as a daily, published seven days a week, but subscribers no longer will enjoy seven-day home delivery.

In a break from longstanding tradition, The Plain Dealer will be delivered to homes only three days a week beginning later this summer.

March 19, 2013: The last print edition of Hollywood's Daily Variety today; from now on, only on-line. The death spiral continues.

February 22, 2013: the beginning of the end? NY Times to sell the Boston Globe.

New York Times Co. vice chairman Michael Golden told Boston Globe employees Friday that the company has a duty to seek the highest bidder in a sale but hopes to leave the newspaper in responsible hands.

“We have no intention to send the New England Media Group to the slaughterhouse,” he said in one of three town-hall style meetings with employees.

February 21, 2013: NBC out of the money; finishes fifth in sweeps; behind Univision.

February 7, 2013: newsstand sales of magazines suffer steep decline --

These figures were far worse for celebrity magazines, which largely suffered double-digit declines. People’s newsstand sales dropped by 12.2 percent while US Weekly experienced a 14.6 percent decline. In Touch Weekly declined by 14.8 percent and Life & Style Weekly suffered a 19.1 percent drop on newsstands.

Some young women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and Glamour, which often attract an overlapping audience as celebrity magazines, also suffered major hits. Cosmopolitan had an 18.5 percent decline in newsstand sales while Glamour’s newsstand sales declined by 14.5 percent. [Fifty Shades of Grey probably took the place of Cosmopolitan on bed stands around the country.]

February 7, 2013: The New York Times reports higher revenues from digital growth. Quite extraordinary and The Times deserves a note of congratulations.

February 1, 2013: The Washington Post considers selling its downtown headquarters. 

January 11, 2013: Time, Inc. will lay off 700 out of a total employee staff of around 8,000.

Time Warner's Time Inc. will lay off up to 700 staffers out of just under 8,000 total as the publisher's new chief struggles to transform famous titles and massive market share into a digital profit center.

The staff cuts will come sometime in the first quarter, ... and will be across the board -- not just focused on editorial, where staffing has already been hard hit.

Time Inc. revenue fell 6% for the nine months ended in September to $2.5 billion. Profit dropped 14% to $220 million. During that period, it dominated 21.5% of overall domestic magazine advertising.

January 11, 2013: no sacred cows at the NY Times; rumors that five senior editors could be laid off, including the managing editor and two assistant managing editors, rattles the entire staff; being considered to cut costs. When the NY Times Sunday edition costs $7.00 at Starbucks, something needs to be done. In general, folks no longer spend all day with any newspaper, not even the Times. They breeze through it and then move on to something else ... like their iPad.

December 6, 2012:

The Washington Post, one of the last holdouts against the trend of charging readers for online access to newspaper articles, is likely to reverse that decision in 2013, according to people familiar with the matter.

While details are being finished, people familiar with the matter said that a metered paywall—meaning a website that allows casual readers to read a certain number of stories free before charging a subscription fee -- is likely to be rolled out in 2013, along with increases to the print newspaper's newsstand price. One person familiar with the matter said the paywall will be introduced no earlier than next summer. 

December 6, 2012: Newsweek/Daily Beast Co looking at charging for access.

Both the Daily Beast and Newsweek newsrooms are cutting jobs today, Brown said in a memo to staff. Newsweek was on track to lose $22 million this year before plans to close the print edition were announced, a person familiar with the matter said earlier this year.

December 3, 2012: The New York Times -- economic times are tough; needs to cut another 30 newsroom positions.  See November 18, 2012, entry below. This is what The New York Times wrote about the Washington Post:

It is an inopportune time for The Post to stumble. Ms. Weymouth’s move is akin to switching drivers just as the car is sputtering to a stop. Print, and more ominously, digital advertising revenue is in decline, circulation is in a dive and the newspaper’s “for and about Washington” editorial strategy has left employees underwhelmed.

Touché.

November 18, 2012: The Washington Post in deep doo-doo -- at least according to its competitor, the New York Times. 

October 30, 2012: newspaper circulation slips further -- WSJ; 

Circulation rose sharply at The Wall Street Journal, which had average weekday circulation of 2.3 million as of Sept. 30, up 9.4% from a year earlier.

The Wall Street Journal maintained its position as the country's largest newspaper by average weekday circulation, with others in the top three spots also keeping their ranks.

The Journal moved past Gannett Co.'s flagship USA Today as the largest U.S. newspaper in 2009. USA Today had been the biggest paper in the U.S. for a decade.

October 18, 2012: Newsweek goes all digital to target a highly mobile, opinion-leading audience who want to learn about world events in a sophisticated context.

October 16, 2012: UK Guardian preparing to eliminate the print edition?

October 2, 2012: The Washington Post buys a majority stake in Celtic Healthcare, a provider of home health care. The deal comes as the Post's longtime cash cow, the Kaplan's higher-education unit, is suffering from tighter government regulations on the for-profit college sector, helping to send operating profit down 84% in the second quarter.  The home health-care industry and for-profit colleges have parallel business models, in the sens that they both lean heavily on government funds. The overwhelming majority of students in for-profit colleges take out student loans, and the federal government makes or guarantees the overwhelming majority of student loans. -- WSJ, page B2.

September 28, 2012: mobile killing CNN, print media; winners: Drudge Report and Yahoo; CNN viewership drops from 24 percent to 16 percent;

September 18, 2012: newspaper ad revenue falls to 1950 level -- adjusted for inflation;

September 7, 2012: adjusted for inflation, print newspaper advertising will be lower this year than in 1950;

August 25, 2012: The NY Times will evolve into a social blog; comments will increase suggesting a rising reader base, but in fact, it will be an East Coast urban clique.  [Note the July 25, 2012 comment: mainstream media that are politically-centered turn into blogs.]

...the paper says it plans "to shift the job’s focus toward more engagement with the reader online and through social media."

July 26, 2012: NY Times reports another loss. 

July 25, 2012: To stem its losses, Newsweek likely to go "all-digital." I don't know about you, but that's one step closer to obscurity. Mainstream media that are politically-centered turn into blogs.  The next step: Newsweek will "merge" with Huffington Post or something similar.

June 13, 2012: CNN fail. Cancels John King political show.  Comments more enlightening than the story.

June 12, 2012: New Orleans Times-Picayune to cut staff by a third. To cut 202 jobs.

June 7, 2012: Digital ad growth stalls. One more nail in the coffin.

May 24, 2012: New Orleans Times-Picayune daily to go to three times/week; 175-year-old history.

January 4, 2012: New York Times raises its price; daily up to $2.50 (I believe this is correct) and the Sunday edition is $5.00 in New York City well and $6.00 outside the NYC area. $6.00. Wow. One can buy great used books for that amount.

December 16, 2011: New York Times CEO to resign; hasty two-weeks notice; no explanation; share price down 75% since CEO named in 2004, said to be due to advertising decline; that and the liberal bias that doesn't play west of the Hudson, doesn't play in upstate NY, and barely plays in NYC. For honest reporting and just as good writing --> Wall Street Journal; will cost the Times $15 million.

July 21, 2011: New York Times posts a quarterly loss; goes digital.

June 21, 2011: Gannett cuts 2 percent of its workforce (700 personnel).

Newspaper publisher Gannett Co. is laying off 700 workers, or 2 percent of its work force, in the latest cutback triggered by a relentless advertising slump.

The layoffs Tuesday affected most of Gannett's 82 daily newspapers in the U.S., including The Indianapolis Star and The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., but not USA Today, Gannett's largest. Gannett would not say how many of the cuts were in the newsroom.

The cuts marked the company's largest round of layoffs in two years and the latest in a string of austerity measures imposed since print advertising, its main source of revenue, began to fall in 2006.

March 14, 2011: Mainstream media continues to lose audience.

For the first time ever, more people consumed their news on the Web than with newspapers. That’s great if you’re building an app, but not so great if you’re one of the legacy media companies struggling for relevance. In terms of audience, television networks slipped 3.4 percent, newspapers were down 5 percent, radio fell 6 percent and magazines were down almost 9 percent.

February 3, 2011: New York Times reports earnings plummet 26 percent 4Q10

November 5, 2010: US News & World Report will discontinue its print edition for subscribers, and become primarily an on-line magazine.  It will continue to sell print editions at newsstands. Strange business model. Mailing costs must have done them in. As an on-line magazine, USNWR will become just another blog. Nothing more, nothing less.

October 31, 2010: National Enquirer to declare bankruptcy.

October 26, 2010: Newspaper circulation down; but decline has slowed (from 8.7% decline rate previous reporting period to 5% this reporting period). At some point there is a point at which there will be no more decline rate simply because there is always a base for something. But the writing is on the wall. Sunday circulation, 4.5% vs 6.5% previous reporting period.

September 6, 2010: ABC News president resigns. Tea Party, 1.  Mainstream media, 0.

August 10, 2010: Print media continues to lose subscribers. Reader's Digest and National Geographic most recent to report big losses in subscribers. This speaks volumes. NatGeo is about as inexpensive as you can get without giving it away.

August 3, 2010: Newsweek sold for a dollar. Ad revenue in freefall. No sense of urgency; no plan; most likely a hobby for the new owner until it finally goes under completely or is bought by someone else for two dollars, doubling the new owner's investment.

July 30, 2010: Chicago Tribune, which also owns the LA Times, proposes huge severance cuts to work itself out of bankruptcy.

July 16, 2010: Gannett (USA Today, others) more than doubles income in 2nd quarter, 2010, but guidance hazy; share price plummets.

July 11, 2010: Network broadcasts had lowest number of viewers this past week in past two decades of Nielson polls.

June 29, 2010: Broadcast evening news loses one million viewers this past year.

May 19, 2010: The Nation looking for $1 million in donations. Certainly there are enough donors out there to save this magazine.

May 7, 2010: Newsweek up for sale.  Tens of millions of dollars in losses for past two years, and despite "heroic efforts," will show a loss for 2010. It was going to happen regardless, but their increasingly liberal slant over the past ten years did not help. One wonders if the New York Times is next.

US Newspaper Circulation Down 8.7%. San Francisco Chronicle's weekday circulation dropped nearly 23%; the Washington Post fell 13%; USA Today lost 14%. The New York Times, number 3, continues to fall farther and farther behind the Wall Street Journal; NY Times declined 8.5%, weekday, and 5.2%, Sunday. April 26, 2010.

Boston Globe close to bankruptcy. April 5, 2009.

ABC News and CBS News hit new all-time lows.  Canadian Olympics "saved" NBC. April 1, 2010.

NY Times will cut 100 newsroom personnel, 8% of newsroom workforce. March 16, 2010.

ABC News: Incredible. ABC News will close every one of its brick-and-mortar bureaus in the US except for DC, and halve the number of its domestic correspondents. This is absolutely amazing. March 1, 2010.

ABC News cutting 100's of jobs, first time triple-digit cuts. February 22, 2010.

NY Times ad revenue dropping and will drop more. February 10, 2010.

February 8, 2010: Magazines' Newstands Sales Fall 9.1%: Newsweek down 41.3% (wow!). Time down 34.9% (wow!). TV Guide -- the whole company -- sold for a dollar in 2008. Reader's Digest is in bankruptcy.

Time featured Obama on its cover 14 times in 2008. Newsweek was close behind, featuring the president-to-be on 12 of its issues in 2008. Time had 52 issues in 2008, so Obama has been featured on more than one-in-four of its covers, or about 27% of the time.

Obama's face or name somehow made it onto the cover of Time just about half of the time in 2008 (25 out of 52 issues -- 48%).