Is the New York Times on the Way Out?

By Israel Rothman - Fri, 06/01/2007 - 2:12pm.

With the New York Times likely to change hands for the first time in over fifty years, and the AP reporting the fastest newspaper circulation decline in over 15 years:

NEW YORK (AP) - Average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent in the six month-period ending in September, the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business, an industry group reported Monday. Sunday circulation also fell 3.1 percent at newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America. In the previous six-month reporting period ending in March, weekday circulation fell 1.9 percent at U.S. daily newspapers and Sunday circulation fell 2.5 percent.

Circulation at the country’s three largest newspapers was relatively stable, but many others showed significant declines.

Gannett Co.’s USA Today, the largest-selling daily, slipped 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago to 2,296,335; The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones & Co., fell 1.1 percent to 2,083,660; and The New York Times Co.’s flagship paper rose 0.5 percent to 1,126,190.

One must truly consider that this is not just a sign of the times (the internet); but also a huge shift in trust factoring:

Do you believe what you hear in the press and on TV as much?

Are you more interested in unfiltered freelance media (blogs) that are popular?

Do you want your content edited by the politicaly correct and educated elite?

I think not. I am sure that the organized press will always exist in some form (AP): but with the advent of reality shows, the popularity of talk TV and Radio, and now user-filtered, user-generated content on blogs, Utube, Google… I think the change that is taking place is bigger and moving faster than most people realize; and I, for one, like it:

Now everyone has a chance to be heard if they have something to say

BIG BROTHER will never come to fruition - not even the Associated Press can control things online!

I can find out, be exposed to anything I like

What do you think?

News Tags: newspapers, News

About the author:
Israel Rothman is a very well-known Internet advertising consultant: Mr. Rothman has been a pioneer in Social Media Marketing as a method of intentional search engine placement for over 800 companies during the last ten years. He is CEO and founder of SocialMediaSystems.com LLC Search Engine Marketing Company. Israel co-authors the 3net Search Engine Marketing Blog

Comments

Submitted by Paul Heckbert (WPN reader) on Mon, 06/04/2007 - 1:01pm.

who should edit the news?

Israel Rothman said "Do you want your content edited by the politicaly correct and educated elite?"

I won't answer this loaded question, but I will answer a more reasonable, related question. Yes, I want most of the news I read to be edited by educated, informed, honest people who are motivated by aspirations of informing the public, as opposed to motivations of profit, bullying, or ideology (think Fox, O'Reilly, Limbaugh). There are so many news sources reachable through cable, radio, internet, and print that good editing is more important than ever.

Submitted by agt (WPN reader) on Fri, 06/01/2007 - 3:33pm.

not the Times

I think you mean the Wall Street Journal

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