Newspaper ad sales continue drop

Newspaper ad sales continue drop

Businesses gravitate more to Internet

It’s no secret the newspaper industry is in a downward spiral according to market analysts. Ad sales continue to decline as businesses gravitate more toward growing Internet audiences.

Much like the prop airplane was gradually replaced by the jet, printed newspapers especially the larger ones are in danger of being replaced by electronic media. Newspapers are in the midst of a twenty year decline in readership that has no end in sight. Even as the U.S. population has grown, people are abandoning printed media. The reasons are obvious. The speed of information provided by the electronic media and the ease of which to get in depth information, relegates printed media to the equivalent of old news.

Gannett announces in mid-August it was cutting 1,000 jobs, including 600 layoffs. Beyond job cuts, newspapers are consolidating operations. The Gainesville Sun and Ocala Star-Banner in Florida, both owned by The New York Times Co., plan to merge editing, design and other tasks but continue to publish separate papers. And on Friday, South Florida's three major daily newspapers said they will exchange basic stories during a three-month trial as each struggles to maintain coverage after cutting their newsroom staffs. The three are separately owned - The Miami Herald by McClatchy, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel by Tribune Co. and The Palm Beach Post by Cox Enterprises Inc.

According to the Newspaper Association of America, advertising revenue dropped 7.9 percent to $45.4 billion last year.

It is not just limited to young people who are switching over to satellite, cable and the Internet for their primary source of news, but across all ages and demographics. The low cost and ease in which to obtain your news using electronic media is changing how we get our news. People are smart. That is why the change is happening. Advertisers are following them to the Internet.