Are newspapers really becomong obsolete?

DanOregon · Nov 6, 2007

Ike Broflovski said:

Joe Williams said:

I've stopped buying paper newspapers because I refuse to subsidize morons who give away their product for free in another form and increasingly remove value from the printed version.
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That's a misconception that seems to float around here a lot. Newspapers aren't giving away the product by putting it online. Ads on heavily trafficked newspaper websites rake in millions. It's like "free" TV. No company I can think of would give away its product without getting something back. It's just a different type of revenue stream.

The Dallas Morning News decided to shrink its circulation area because it decided it wasn't cost-efficient to deliver the paper a long way. The paper said readers could continue to get the product online. So it may seem as if they're trading, say, X thousand paid readers in West Texas for 0 paid readers in West Texas. But the West Texas readers are hitting the website and, they would say, click on the ad banners.
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The cost-efficient argument is somewhat dubious. The real aim in shrinking a circulation is that it improves your market penetration allowing you to keep jacking up ad rates. It's similar to only counting the passes a qb throws 20 yards and in to reconfigure a QB rating.

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Are newspapers really becomong obsolete?

DanOregon Well-Known Member

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Are newspapers really becomong obsolete?

DanOregon Well-Known Member

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