TIME's solution: start charging

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1877191-1,00.html

 

They need to get the heads of all the major chains in a room and convince them they ALL need to do this now.

It'll never happen though.

 

There are plenty of people in this industry who don't think it's the answer. Talked to one at length the other night. The thought is that the industry has never been subscriber-supported, but always ad-supported. He told me advertisers should be MORE interested in advertising on the Web, not less, because we can deliver more accurate stats about people's reading habits. Felt it was only a matter of time before advertisers got on board.

 

For more on this subject:

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/66663/

 

Sorry

 

Eh, no biggie. Just wanted you to see the previous discussion on the subject because you're obviously interested. Figured you'd missed it, and now you can read it if you'd like.

 

Not true, though. Advertising makes up the bulk of revenue, but most papers make significant profit on circ.

 

Is that really true? I've always been told that 50 cents per issue is barely enough to pay for the cost of printing the thing and delivering it to your doorstep.

 

Does anybody else find it a tad ironic that we are all reading this Time article for free?

 

Did he happen to say how much time?

 

Yeah, that would be good information to know. Because if it takes until 2080, I'd say most of us are fucked anyway.

 

I've posted this link before. The "rule of thumb" (that's what they really call it) has been a profit of 46 percent on circ, but Inland does a yearly survey to find out what the reality is compared with the long-held standard. The figures in 2007, the most recent, were in the 30s:

http://www.inlandpress.org/articles/2009/02/19/research/rules_of_thumb/doc48c57a29b6d08078370615.txt