Maybe redesigning isn’t the solution
So you’re sitting there at a major metropolitan newspaper and you’re thinking: “I know what we should do to reverse the decline in our circulation — we’ll just redesign the paper! After all, a bunch of newspapers have done that and they’ve really done well.” Or have they? Not if you take a look at some of the charts that Mark Friesen of NewsDesigner put together.
With the exception of some of the British papers that switched to a smaller “Berliner” format (which is kind of a tabloid but slightly larger) from a broadsheet, most of the newspapers Mark looked at have continued to slide. In the comments, more than one person says that this is because newspapers are cutting back on unprofitable low-quality circulation such as penny-per-copy stuff, which a New York Times story also gave as the explanation. But even if you exclude the under-50 per cent stuff, circulation is still declining, as Jeff Jarvis notes here.
Update:
Jason Calacanis of Netscape says if he was unemployed he would get some financial types together and buy some distressed newspapers. And Mark Friesen has updated his earlier post with some comments and criticism from other newspaper industry types.
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(On Nov 5th, 2006 at 5:21 am)
[…] Mathew Ingram and Jeff Jarvis's points about the circulation decline agree that for most newspapers, a print redesign won't change much. Ingram: "most of the newspapers … have continued to slide." Jarvis (who plays a little bait-and-switch game with duelling columnists): "… redesigns are no cure for what ails papers. … The lipstick ain’t doing it." Cool charts, dudes. […]