Monday, December 08, 2008

Your daily digest of newspaper extinction news


Here's the latest HitWise news and media report (PDF). Notice anything interesting?

You've got it: only two legacy print media outlets appear in the top ten list of Internet news sites. That would be the fossilized New York Times (#7) and People Magazine (#10 and dropping).

• Meanwhile the Tribune Company has reportedly hired bankruptcy advisers. Tribune owns, among others, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and The Baltimore Sun. Some observers claim a bankruptcy filing for the company could come this week.

• McClatchy, the third-largest newspaper chain, is said to be exploring options for its flagship Miami Herald newspaper. With immense debt and a precipitous decline in ad revenue, a sale of the Herald could raise desperately needed capital for the company.

You may recall that McClatchy paid $4.5 billion in 2006 for Knight Ridder, much of it financed. I wonder how that purchase is working out for them?

• Finally, the Rocky Mountain News appears to be on life support. The Scripps company paper is on the block and unless a buyer time-travels here from the sixties, odds are low anyone will turn up to pay for the paper. Analyst Alan Mutter says its days are numbered and "the number of days probably is about 90."

To make matter worse, most Americans believe that the media is flat-out lying to them on a daily basis.

Related: Newspaper CEOs rearrange deck chairs in closed-door "Crisis Summit".
Linked by: Gateway Pundit, American Digest and Ninme. Thanks!

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