Print Journalism - Burning Out or Fading Away?

Here’s my first prediction for the reign of the next president – the print journalism industry will continue to vanish, and journalism itself will continue to flourish.

Last week was beyond bad for print journalists. Time Inc. announced 600 layoffs. Gannett cut 10% of its workforce. McGraw Hill downsized 270. The advertising industry, which heavily subsidizes print journalism, sees rough times ahead for the next few quarters. And for grisly humor, the Motley Fool has a newspaper stock death pool.

Most ominous of all, the staid NY Times publisher Arthur “Pinch” Sulzberger blames the industry’s woes on an overkill of information. But he claims people will eventually turn to “trusted” places like The New York Times to gain the right perspective on the all the clutter and noise emanating from blogs, cell phones and competing 24-hour newscycles where everything older than 15 minutes is antiquated. I must say that Pinchy’s thoughts don’t exactly sound correct to me. If anything, it is reminiscent of the superior attitude that the Times’ critics routinely deride it for. And notice which company is part of that death pool.

Regular readers of The Boston Globe, which is going through the declining ad revenue, layoffs and page shrinkage problems throughout the industry have undoubtedly noticed that the print version is starting to resemble USA Today – same four sections and same shorter stories. But if you only read the Globe online, you’d never notice the difference and you’d still get the same content. I’m not sure if Boston.com is profitable yet, but obviously the Globe (owned by The New York Times) is headed in the right direction. Long gone are the times when the news media controlled the airwaves and political parties. If anything, the Internet has liberated the public from that. The plethora of choices and the ability to interact with the audience online are the future for both independent media and the stalwarts who can correctly embrace them. This was not possible as recently as 10 years ago.

And here’s one paper that’s getting it right – remember the Christian Science Monitor? It’s going online only next year. The future of substantive media can currently be seen in the success stories of Salon and Slate, plus the bloggers who were either smart enough to get on the wagon early or who have the talent and time to make their blogs successful (I don’t fall into that category yet. Maybe one day…)

Will newspapers disappear? No. Stalwarts like The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have the brand power to stick around in some smaller form. Planes and automobiles didn’t completely kill trains either. But I do see many newspapers moving to Sunday-only print versions or evolving into some other kind of niche where they can exist. Or it can follow the Monitor’s lead and embrace the future instead of fighting it tooth and nail.