Relatively stable newspapers?

They give IPads to subscribers? Doesn't an IPad cost more than a 5-year subscription?

 

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette publisher touts plan for Jonesboro iPads

 

They hire very good people, so good on them!

 

Buyouts and maybe layoffs in Detroit —again

Detroit Free Press, Detroit News seek buyouts ahead of potential layoffs

 

Another sign of stability at the Democrat-Gazette: We just got our Christmas bonus (one day's pay).

 

These subscription numbers demonstrate why the pharse "stable newspapers" are an oxymoron.

As a very crude measure you can take computer market penetration by diving metro population by 3. St. Louis has a metro population of 2.8 million or about 933,000 households. So if Sunday circulation is 136,000 then penetration is 15%. 10 years ago penetration rates of 35% were not uncommon.

And circulation is dropping fast.

 

Because the industry is so competitive, I'd like to think that most publications hire very good people. But I'm familiar with several situations in this industry where a lesser candidate has been hired for a variety of reasons, often because they are willing to work for less money. I'd be curious to hear what others think about that and whether that helps or hurts a publication.

 

Arkansas has a lot of old people —retirees from up north as well as natives — which is part of why they’ve rocketed up the national circ rankings ... mainly by merely holding their own.

 

How are the open records laws in Arkansas? Not as good as Florida, I'm sure, but it must be rampant with corruption.

 

A subscription to the Raleigh News & Observer costs $50 a month??? $600 a year???? Seriously???

Based on their circulation size of 68,833 ... that's $41.3 million in yearly subscription revenue. Wow.

 

Assuming, of course, that any of those 68,833 people is paying full price. (Narrator's voice: "They're not.")

 

Yeah, you got to be a moron to pay $600 a year for any newspaper.