Surviving Recession in the Print Media
Some Business Weeklies Growing While Dailies Struggle for Life
Nov 1, 2009
Whitney Shaw says the 40 business journals in his ACBJ group have not escaped the recession “unscathed,” but he added that “we’re still fundamentally very healthy.” That’s a stark contrast to the huge financial and readership losses experienced by most American and Canadian daily newspapers in the past two years.
To explain the differences, Shaw referred to the daily paper problems as pneumonia and the weekly problems as “a cold.”
American Newspaper Circulation Down
In October 2009, the Audit Bureau of Circulation announced that the average daily circulation at U.S. newspapers decreased 10.6% in the April-September period from the same six months in 2008. The average decline for Sunday papers was 7.5%.
The losses were even greater at some papers. The Audit Bureau of Circulation said USA Today dropped 17.2% and the Houston Chronicle fell 14%.
At the Washington Post, print advertising revenue decreased 27% in the first nine months of the year, although daily circulation fell only 3.6%.
Seventeen Canadian Papers Lost Circulation
Seventeen of Canada’s 25 largest papers lost circulation from 2007 to 2008. The circulation of the Toronto Star, Canada's largest paper, declined more than 900,000, about 28%.
The sharp losses have prompted some daily publishers to increase their single copy and/or subscription prices, putting even more pressure on their circulation. The Chicago Sun Times, for instance, raised its single copy price 50%, from 50 cents to 75 cents and blamed the increase for at least part of the paper’s circulation decline.
Whitney Shaw Lists ACBJ Strengths
In an email interview with Talking Biz.com, Shaw said the 40 ACBJ journals, which are part of the Newhouse media group, had weathered the 2008-09 recession because they:
- Traditionally maintain lean staffs
- Contract their printing rather than purchase presses
- Have no debt
- Never borrowed to purchase journals
- Are not burdened with expensive retiree pensions
It would be difficult for most daily papers to operate in that manner, especially without their own presses. The weekly business papers can get away with small staffs because they cover only the business world and publish only once per week.
Shaw said some ACBJ journals have done better than others for a wide variety of reasons, including:
- The financial health and diversities of the individual communities
- The caliber of the journal’s advertising staff
- The quality of the business news competition provided by the daily paper in each community
Some of the reasons cannot be pinpointed, Shaw said.
Not all business weeklies and not all city publications have shared the ACBJ success. At least one business publication gave up its printed edition to concentrate on an online edition. Publishers Information Bureau said advertising pages in American magazines decreased 29.4% in the second quarter of 2009.
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