One of Chicago's icons is in trouble, and they're pushing the same old worn-out excuses. The parent company of The Chicago Tribune reported a 62% decline in profit and and "increasing" decline in readership. The newspaper attributes their problems to a shift towards the Web by readers and advertisers.
I don't accept that explanation. Newspapers continue to provide news in an excellent format that is portable, concentrated, and randomly accessible. Imagine if newspapers had just been invented: everyone would be flabbergasted by the improvement over reading the news on PDAs. No batteries! Doesn't break if you drop it! Huge "screen" size! High resolution! Random access! You can write on it! You can even rip it apart and share it with your friends!
Newspapers have been in decline for quite some time; the trend is accelerating; but I suspect the Web is just a handy whipping boy for problems at the newspaper. Remember when newspapers blamed their problems on television? Newspapers have been in decline for years, long before the Web. Newspapers need a strong dose of creative thinking if they want to become profitable again.
Topics: · business · culture · internet · web
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