Newspapers take new measures to survive

From NPR, All Things Considered.

“It used to be that newspapers competed largely with each other for classifieds and advertising revenue. But now the industry faces a crowded marketplace that includes a big gorilla: the Internet.

Experts say the problem is that newspapers haven’t figured out how to make a lot of money off online content.

“Newspapers are making money off the Internet; they’re just not making it in a way that they make it in the kind of margins that they make from a print newspaper,” says Mark Fitzgerald, an editor at large with Editor & Publisher magazine. “For every customer that they have [for the] print newspaper, they’re making about a dollar. For every customer they have on the Internet, they make about 10 to 15 cents.”

The newspapers of Detroit are in trouble and they’re taking measures to survive.  The Freep also known as the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News are scaling back their printing operations, increasing their web presence, and reducing home delivery to three days a week, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.  With the recent bankruptcy filing of the Chicago Tribune, newspapers are clearly in trouble and the path that  the Freep, and the News are taking the lead on may be one that other newspapers may choose to follow.

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