Many newspaper publishers say the ad sales slump has stopped, but not at Wapo: Both print and Web ad declines accelerated over the last quarter. Newsweek, meanwhile, saw its ad sales drop by half.
Funny because it’s true, almost: “For just pennies a day, you can clothe, feed, and shelter newspaper professionals.” Meanwhile, this one’s for real: The New York Times asks subscribers what they’d think about paying $5 for Web access to the paper.
For the last year or so, the Washington Post Co. has reported steadily declining results for its newspaper business–just like every other newspaper publisher in the country. But in previous quarters, it was at least able to argue that its slide wasn’t as bad as the one the New York Times was going through. It can’t say that anymore.
Once upon a time, U.S. News & World Report tried positioning itself as a competitor to Newsweek and Time. But those days are long gone: Now the publication is best known as a publisher of lists. And it’s acknowledging that fact by moving to a monthly publishing schedule.
The Washington Post Company’s Q3 report card is bad. But it’s better than the last one the troubled newspaper and education company earned. And yes, you have to be in the media business to look at a seven percent yearly decline in revenue, which is what Wapo’s newspaper group recorded, as a positive. But that decrease is indeed better than Q2, when newspaper revenues were down 13 percent.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
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