The 10 Major Newspapers That Will Either Fold or Go Digital Next --By 24/7 WALL ST.

[Bozita]

The 10 Major Newspapers That Will Either Fold or Go Digital Next

By 24/7 WALL ST.
2 hrs 32 mins ago


Over the last few weeks, the newspaper industry has entered a new period of decline. The parent of the papers in Philadelphia declared bankruptcy as did the Journal Register chain. The Rocky Mountain News closed and the Seattle Post Intelligencer, owned by Hearst, will almost certainly close or only publish online. Hearst has said it will also close The San Francisco Chronicle if it cannot make massive cuts at the paper. The most recent rumor is that the company will fire half of the editorial staff. That action still may not be enough to make the property profitable.

24/7 Wall St. has created its list of the ten major daily papers that are most likely to fold or shut their print operations and only publish online. The properties were chosen based on the financial strength of their parent companies, the amount of direct competition that they face in their markets, and industry information on how much money they are losing. Based on this analysis, it is possible that eight of the fifty largest daily newspapers in the United States could cease publication in the next eighteen months. (Read: "The Race for a Better Read")

1. The Philadelphia Daily News. The smaller of the two papers owned by The Philadelphia Newspapers LLC, which recently filed for bankruptcy. The parent company says it will make money this year, but with newspaper advertising still falling sharply, the city cannot support two papers and the Daily News has a daily circulation of only about 100,000. The tabloid has a small staff, most of whom could probably stay on at Philly.com, the web operation for both of the city dailies.

2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune has filed for Chapter 11. The paper may not make money this year even without the costs of debt coverage. The company said it made $26 million last year, about half of what it made in 2007. The odds are that the Star Tribune will lose money this year if its ad revenue drops another 20%. There is no point for creditors to keep the paper open if it cannot generate cash. It could become an all-digital property, but supporting a daily circulation of over 300,000 is too much of a burden. It could survive if its rival the St. Paul Pioneer Press folds. A grim race.

more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090309/us_time/08599188378500

[louis-t]

1. Detroit Free Press will go to 3 day home delivery.

I will cancel as of March 31. If I can do without a paper 4 days, I can do without it 7 days. I don't WANY to pay them to read paper online. I think a lot of people will cancel.

[polichick]

2. Good news imo - too many trees are wasted on papers people read once and toss.

[Octafish]

4. Trees' gain is Democracy's loss.

Newspapers represent the last source of community-based information.
Soon it'll be all-Fox, all the time.

[polichick]

5. Nah - more and more people read online. We don't need the paper editions.

[Egalitariat]

8. Without the ad revenue from the paper editions, the online editions will go next

You're trading dollars for dimes when you move from print to online.

There will be a much bigger revolution in the newspaper game when it's all over.

[polichick]

10. Couldn't they charge consumers to read the online edition?

[rvablue]

7. I totally agree. For the life of me I cannot understand how so many DUers

day in and day out are on here bitching and moaning and hand-wringing (understandbly so!!) about the lack of any real reporting or reason on the cable channels.

And then, at the same time, shrug off the death of the American newspaper.

While it might be 5-10 years to completely recover from this economic mess, it will happen.

But what will happen to our democracy and our country with no beat reporters keeping watch over budgets, cops, government, etc. etc. Because once the papers fold, they are not coming back.

I just think that a lot of DUers do not understand that 90% of what they see on TV is generated from print stories.

[flvegan]

3. Wow, I didn't know The Boston Globe was doing so poorly.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. What is the average political 'lean' of these papers?

[Bozita]

9. Detnews is rightwing. It's been that way forever.