Newspapers Going

Dear Victorious,

What gives with the newspapers in this country? Why are they losing money and even going out of business?

Concerned Reader

Dear Concerned,

Because they are less relevant than ever before.

First, people can now get their news needs met via the plethora of news shows (including entertainment and sports news) on cable TV, on the Internet, etc. It used to be the newspaper was the only place to go for comprehensive news. Today, we have things like Google alerts that can even browse all the newspapers of the world and feed us articles on the things we're most interested in. We don't even have to read the newspapers to find out what's in them!

Second, Americans are becoming more ignorant than ever before. Simply put, we don't care about the news. We don't know much about the world around us and don't care to know. We're quite happy being entertained, or worshipping our gods of celebrity, fashion, etc. This is even more true of our younger generations. They simply see no need to be up on the news of the day. They don't value knowledge of current events. In fact, they put a higher value on texting their friends, achieving the next higher level in the latest video game or being entertained at the latest movie. They're ignorant (i.e., uninformed) and they're quite happy to stay that way.

Third, as readership has declined (and paid subscriptions with it), the newspapers cannot get the same money from advertisers that they used to. Even if your local paper is still chock full of advertising and inserts, it is likely that the retailers paid less to stuff the paper with those things than they used to --- because there are less newspapers being delivered or sold than there used to be.

So with revenue from subscription and newsstand sales declining, and advertising revenue declining, but costs for labor and print materials - and costs for worthwhile content escalating --- it becomes a simple numbers formula for the newspapers of today. Their business model is slowly being disenfranchised.

Look for more newspapers to disappear in America. With any luck, their owners can reinvent themselves as media or information companies and survive. If not, they'll disappear too.