The New Orleans Times-Picayune May Reduce Frequency of Publication -- NY Times

At the T-P, or at the corporate level?

At the T-P, losses were headed their way. A smaller profit is what they are aiming for.

And, with revenue down thoughout the company's units/properties, it's unrealistic to think profitable units can subsidize losing units.

 

But if you say this

how can you also say this?

 

Because they can't depend on other units being profitable anymore.

 

This move is New Coke.

Coke was a great drink. Pepsi got a little too close and they freaked out.

This will be New Coke. I don't know if we'll ever see the Times-Picayune Classic, but somebody will step in at some point and reclaim this revenue.

I hope and pray that it is some person or group who wants to do something charitable to society and opens a non-profit newspaper. I swear it will be the business model that saves the profession.

 

To answer an earlier question, I don't know if the T-P's numbers are legit.

I know that mixed messages have been sent about profitability, readership and such.

I also know that comparing circulation to population is a poor metric when looking at newspapers.

New Orleans has a metro population of 1.2 million and with a circulation of 140,000, one person here said that meant the paper only had 10 percent of the market and was, in essence, a failure. Yet that doesn't compute either. No newspaper is going to reach 100 percent of the population. That would mean every man, woman and child would have to subscribe and that isn't even, well, that's not going to happen.

It seems households would make a better measuring stick or look at the percentage of home ownership and see how many homeowners subscribe.

New Orleans, Birmingham and the rest, it will be interesting.

I suspect that many of the numbers touted by ownership are, in fact, bunk but I don't know.

 

You count households for penetration. So divide 1.2 million by 2.5 you get 280,000 and you 140000 as a proportion and you get 50 percent.

 

I agree.

 

You guys both have a great future in ad sales. Hell, I'm ready to run out and buy a newspaper ad right now.

Here's what I've learned from this thread:

-- Newspaper ads are extremely effective -- and, more effective than either radio or internet advertising

-- The T-P reaches between 50% and 70% of the people in greater New Orleans (who, by the very fact that they take a paper, are likely better educated and have higher income than the average resident).

-- And yet, ad sales are down.

So, why is that? You're telling me you have an effective means of advertising, and reach 50% to 7-% of the population on a daily (for now) basis, and your audience skews towards the better educated and higher income?

And, you're having trouble selling ads?

The few folks left buying newspaper ads must be cleaning up.

 

looks like the Oregonian is up next....

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2012/06/22/portland-ore-is-about-to-get-the-online-newhouse-treatment

 

Again, the T-P may not make circulation efforts in some portions of its market. I don't know.

Lots of metros have dropped chunks of markets. Dallas Morning News used to circulate in six states as recently as five or so years ago. Now they circulate in like five counties.

In math is hard news: 1.2 million divided by 2.5 is 480,000, so that's more like 29 percent of the market, but the T-P lays claim to 74 percent

 

Newspapers are like coffee and coffee is for closers.

Anyway, local display ad sales might be holding steady or even up, for all the hell I know. Highly unlikely as New Orleans and the rest of the coast is still dealing with the aftermath of Katrina, Rita and the rest. Not having a T-P in front of me, I'd bet that the critical loss of classified line ads, due to interwebz, removed a crucial chunk of revenue.

But lots of papers had and still have inflated revenue numbers because of national/regional display ads. That allowed papers to have larger staffs then what the local market would bear.

Remove that, and the classifieds and the staffs are correcting to be more in line with local revenue.

Again, that's just me supposing but at my place, our regional/national ad buys have all but vanished and classifieds are withering on the vine. They are largely propped up by state law required municipal legal classifieds.

I'm no expert, just got a couple of decades in the newspaper business, but I'd remiss not to note that the T-P is suffering from the profit demands of the ownership. It has been well documented, in all sorts of industries, that family ownership tends to be a problem once it hits the third and fourth generations, with the fifth generation completely getting out. Generally speaking.

Si Newhouse is, I think fourth generation publishing, and his heirs want some damn money and now. Those trust funds just don't magically appear. Those dwindling dividends make it hard to support three and four homes, especially when they chose low-paying gigs in philanthropy and academia because they had another source of income.

What's happening in New Orleans is a story that has been repeated often and everywhere.

 

Sorry about my poor math earlier. In indeed it is 29 percent