Online newspaper readership gaining on print

Here is a chart of recent changes in readership:

Print Readership and Visitation to Newspapers and News Categories
	Unique Visitors (MM)
	Apr-08	Apr-09	Absolute Change	Percent Change
Newspaper Print Readers*	86.4	76.7	-9.7	-11%
Online Newspapers	66.6	69.8	3.2	5%
News Category	109.8	116.4	6.6	6%

Source: comScore Plan Metrix; Total U.S., Persons 18+

Wall Street Journal lays off librarian

So how will the reporters get the necessary background research for their stories?  They will use a canned Lexis research product called, “Due Diligence Dashboard.”  Leslie Norman says this cannot replace the, “knowledge about how to research using all the tricks we’ve learned over the years. We figure that the reporters will probably spend 10 times our compensation trying to do their own research.”

Anyone remember the movie Desk Set with Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy?

Article

Newspapers embrace the web

But is it enough?

Here are some key finding from the 2008 Bivings Report, a survey of what newspapers are doing online.

*70% of newspapers allow users to comment on article up from 33% in 2007.

*Registration requirements have fallen to 11% from 29% in 2007.

*100% of newspapers have RSS feeds as well as feature online advertising.

*58% allow for user generating content; photos, videos or articles up from 24% last year.

The problem is that newspapers in every case are behind the curve, are responding where web-only sites have been for much longer and it raises the question, what makes the newspapers better than Dailykos, HuffingtonPost, Drudge report, the Associate Press website?  If newsPAPERS were about the efficient and attractive dissemination of hardcopy news, what is their value proposition without that?  One argument is that they have trained reporters and editors who offer a much high caliber of reporting than a “blogger.”  True, but there is nothing about the web that prevents quality reporting.  So then the question comes again to why newsPAPERS?   I don’t see an answer which is why I cite back to my previous post on this matter:

Newspapers the way of vaudeville?

Newspapers the way of vaudeville?

Vaudeville died in the early thirties for several reasons but the Great Depression was one of them.  With the Tribune company going into bankruptcy, will other newspaper companies follow suit?  The Internet hit the newspapers like the “talkies” hit vaudeville but it was  the seismic economic shift of the Great Depression that sealed the deal.   My prediction: no media company will be primarily newspaper based in three years.