New post on OurPDX: The fate of the little guy
March 26th, 2009Over at OurPDX I’ve written a piece about the fate of niche publications in light of the larger crisis in the newspaper industry. I use Just Out, Portland’s leading gay and lesbian newspaper, as an example of the difficulties niche papers face, and how a digital future is a scary place:
The problem is, print media is tragically unable to find online ad dollars. Tom Corbett, an analyst with Morningstar, estimates that in 2008, print publishers made 1.7 cents in online ad revenue for every dollar they lost. That’s like walking 1.7 feet forward only to turn around and sprint 100 feet in the other direction. Niche publications can barely stand to lose inches, much less feet. Those with viable digital revenue models are … I don’t know. I haven’t seen any.
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