How one paper solved its 'Monday problem'

The Lawrence (KS) Journal-World solved the problem of weak advertising on Monday by creating a themed edition for women that generated some $340,000 in revenues at launch from mostly new accounts.In the following guest article, Al Bonner, the general manager of the 20k-circulation daily, tells how the paper sold almost all the ad positions for a year within a matter of weeks.By Al Bonner Like

Campaign ’08: MSM’s last hurrah

The 2008 presidential election likely will go down in history as the last hurrah for the mainstream media when it comes to its influence over national politics.The once pre-eminent authority of newspapers and broadcast networks in national campaigns will be diminished sharply in the future by three major and seemingly unstoppable trends::: Shrinking audiences and decaying advertising revenues

Monitor move doesn’t spell end of print

Scrapping the print edition of the Christian Science Monitor may be the right thing to do for that publication, but the strategy would not be viable for most other newspapers. The plan to stop printing the Monitor this spring makes sense for it, because its audience is geographically dispersed and the continued cost of printing and mailing a physical paper is prohibitively high for a title whose

Circulation: Worse than you think

American newspapers have lost nearly a quarter of their subscribers since the industry's average daily circulation hit an all-time high of 63.3 million in 1984.Circulation has dropped by 23.6% over the last 24 years to 48.4 million today, according to the most recent figures provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulations and the Newspaper Association of America. In the same period, average Sunday

Voodoo newspaper economics

The formidable problems of the newspaper industry won’t get solved if industry leaders substitute voodoo economics for rational discourse. So, let’s dispense with some of the bad juju we have heard in the last couple of days.Voodoo Economics 101Not once, not twice but five times, Gary Pruitt, the chief executive at the McClatchy Co., told stock analysts that the sagging sales and profits at his

Fat newspaper profits are history

Despite mounting declines in sales and circulation in recent years, most newspapers today still generate profits surpassing those of many Fortune 500 companies. But the fat profits are coming to an end, because newspapers are running out of ways to cut costs.After producing operating earnings at an average rate of 27.3% between 2000 and 2007, the industry’s margin this year may average no better

Credit rescue too late for many advertisers

The global effort to revive the credit market isn’t working fast enough for newspapers, which are losing many traditional advertising accounts as retailers and auto dealers go out of business.Given the growing dominance of big-box merchants like Wal-Mart and Costco – which tend not to advertise in newspapers – it is highly doubtful that new merchants will emerge to replace the departing retailers