How long before Newspapers die?

Whenever I've seen the Oregonian the past 3-4 years, it's stunning how few ads are in it. Unless it's the Sunday edition, those pages are WIDE OPEN, throughout the paper. Not a good sign.

 

I think that newspapers as we know them die when retailors stop using them for inserts. The rest of the advertising has pretty much gone away but the inserts seem to have held up better. I am not sure exactly when that happens but it will as circ declines due to older readers dying and not being replaced.

 

NIEonline.com: Newspapers In Education

 

Ace is right. The higher ups do not get it thus the print edition will die very soon. Ad salespeople can't and won't sell ads and I'm suspecting ad salespeople are not top quality salespeople, kind of the bottom of the barrel. No talented sales person is going to work for a newspaper print or online. LOL at that notion. Newspaper publishers got what they deserved. Their online newspapers won't ever be popular. Remember the St. Louis Democrat? Nice online product. Nobody read it. Once newspapers go all online their sports departments will be competing with ESPN and even Rivals.com and they will lose and be mocked. All newspapers had going for it was the print edition which has been killed by lousy sales people and clueless managment types pushing internet first.

 

I've worked with a lot of sales reps, and most of them aren't stupid, lazy hucksters.
It's easy to blame them from the newsroom, but I don't think they're what's driving business away.

 

Not sure what the status is, but whenever I do a vacation stop, I am asked if I want to donate my papers to it.

 

Yeah, I'm sure ESPN.com will have a recap on the Podunk/Hickory midseason game.

 

I'm not trying to malign the ad people, I am saying the market has changed dramatically and newspapers have only seemed to tweak their approach.

 

NIE is still a big player at my shop. When school is in session, I'd say we print close to 3,000 extra copies.

 

Yes, and their World Series games are still ending at midnight.

 

Songbird, I don't think many of my peers read the paper when I was 10 and Ike was President. The comics were the traditional means through which newspapers attracted children, and they have been the most neglected area of most papers for as long as I was in the business.

 

The Paper was on one of the movie channels this past weekend. Man, what a great movie. One of those I flip to every time I see it on the guide.