While the company might consider revising this number downward following GM’s advertising exodus, the LA Time said, yesterday, it will launch a $10 million to boost its ailing circulation. The campaign, pointless in the face of steadily increased online newspaper readership, will include direct marketing, television, radio and, smartly, online. The paper’s circ is down 5.6 percent and, rather than look to new areas for growth, the paper blamed recent telemarketing limitations for the decline. Perhaps we should just spell it out for the LA Times and for all other newspapers engaging in this losing battle:
NO ONE READS PRINTED NEWSPAPERS ANYMORE!
OK, so a few still do but wouldn’t it make more sense for a company to embrace a growing medium as opposed to a declining one? That said, newspapers don’t have to say goodbye to paper forever but they should concentrate on a business model with more promise such as custom published versions of the paper, based on a reader’s interests, delivered online but, if desired, printable by the individual for those moments when it’s not so cool to bring a laptop into the bathroom. Additionally, 70 percent of a newspaper’s content is, likely, of no interest to an individual reader. It’s senseless waste of time and effort to produce content no one will consume. Newspaper publishers should set their sights on delivering products where 100 percent of the content is of interest to the reader. Yes, much easier said that done but so was the notion of human flight.
