It's Happening - Just Like I Said I Would

Wednesday, May 16, 2007, I wrote about how people are turning to online sources for their news.

In that article I asked the question, "What do you think is going to happen when a news paper has to make a decision about spending $600,000 to fix a 40 year old press? How far would that same $600,000 go for web development and web marketing?"

We now have an answer. Well, at least we have an answer on a local level. The Waterloo Courier, the nearly 150 year old local newspaper, now owned by Lee Enterprises, has just shut down production at the local facility. The printing in now being outsourced to Color Web Printers, a Cedar Rapids based company. The closing of the production line resulted in 52 people loosing their jobs.

The Courier is promoting this as a good thing, contrary to the impact on the community. But what are you to do when circulation and readership continues to drop? You are forced to raise prices. It's just a matter of time before it all falls apart.

If you are a staunch newsprint advertiser, try pulling your ads for 1 month. Let me know what you find out. Did it impact your business in a negative way? If your target audience is 40 and under, I think that you may be surprised at the results.

So what do you think? Is newspaper dying?