Print is Dead: Books in Our Digital Age

The Wall Street Journal last week had a story by Emily Steel entitled “Newspapers’ Ad Sales Show Accelerating Drop.” The article is pretty much the usual newspapers-are-in-trouble story, with Steel writing that “The newspaper industry has been suffering from slow growth for years, of course, after decades of declining readership. In the past couple of years, though, competition from the Internet — big portals as well as free-classified Web sites such as Craigslist — and other media has transformed anemic growth into slipping revenue.” A chart accompanying the story (pictured above) shows the “inky depths” that newspaper revenue has sunk to. (While the chart’s information is relevant and informative, I also really love the phrase “Inky depths”; it could be a great band name or, at the very least, a White Stripes record).

Steel goes on to say that “publishers are putting initiatives in place to generate a larger portion of ad dollars through the Web. Still, analysts say that growth in Web revenue is beginning to slow and isn’t enough to offset the decline in print.” Which is another way of saying that the newspaper industry, after resisting change for so long — and trying desperately to hang onto both its product and its audience — is now trying to change themselves and their business model. As Steel writes, “The decline, which has sent newspaper stocks into a tailspin, has prompted restructuring and consolidation.” However, it just might be too little, too late. Recent downward trends don’t show any sign of reversing themselves, and new consumer traits — such as going to Craiglist instead of the Classified section — are hardening into habit. The same way that music turned the digital corner, never to go back, newspapers are now heading in a similar direction.