Beats and Circulation

Local newspapers are seeing a decline in print circulation and an increase in web traffic towards their online offerings – this according to a study conducted by an industry group.

It’s hardly surprising that print media is experiencing a decline when 70% of the United States is online and 40% have speedy, broadband connections. And it’s likely that this trend will accelerate as the instant-messaging generation matures. These kids are strictly accustomed to online sources of information. This will gradually prompt advertisers who target this wealthy demographic to migrate away from legacy media.

And our national discussion is now linked and electronic. Opinion columns and stories about civic issues seem static and outdated without the commentary and supporting detail that comes along with ancillary web information. We want to share news and commentary items, forward a link in email, or clip quotes to a blog. These capabilities are becoming deeply ingrained in our daily behavior.

But the other side of the coin is the rise in traffic towards newspaper websites. From a business standpoint this still looks dire - a 10% increase in web eyeballs won't replace, with advertising income, the revenue lost by a 6% drop in paper sales. But over the long haul newspapers have a small advantage in being the natural aggregators of location specific information. Movie times, restaurants, school closings during inclement weather – where else can this be found in one convenient website?

But the list is getting thinner. Cheap data points like the five-day forecast or the National League standings are almost public domain. Craigslist and Ebay are both broken out by location – and powerful, game-changing technology like Google Maps promise to radically alter the landscape of information with geo-tagging, a technology that can tie Internet data back to physical space using global positioning devices. The combined impact of these changes may eventually make the traffic increase in local newspaper websites a temporary phenomenon.

But for now, nobody can package together local content any better than the papers. Local alternatives (the Beacon here in Cincinnati) are mostly alternative editorial pages and news stories that are selectively determined to be under-reported. The thought of “alternative” sports and weather isn’t very appealing - although I’m sure, on the web, there is someone somewhere who wants to debate the chance of rain and write ‘open letters’ to person who complied the box scores.