Newspaper Revenues Collapse Over 50% In Six Years

As we saw with the presidential election, the media is still plenty powerful when it comes to pushing an agenda and a failed president over the 50% mark. That’s not a small victory, but it might by what’s known as a pyrrhic victory — a victory where in the long run the cost isn’t worth the win. In the case of the Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper, since 2006 this cost has been devastating. In just six short years, newspaper ad revenues have collapsed over 50%, from $49.3 billion to $23.9 billion.

For 25 straight quarters, newspaper advertising revenues have fallen.

The media might be able to still affect the outcomes of election, but in the process, as you can see, the price of doing so has been their credibility; and by logical extension their customer base, and by further logical extension their revenue base. Lost credibility means fewer eyeballs which means fewer advertising dollars.  

Recent polls show that fewer and fewer people trust the mainstream media, and for obvious reasons. The media’s behavior during the 2012 election certainly did nothing to improve this situation, which means this revenue problem is only going to get worse.

Some of these institutions will forever be propped up as prestigious tax write-offs for the multi-national companies that own then. In fact, many newspapers would already be out of business were it not for a very patient parent company keeping them on life support. But as we saw with the death of “Newsweek,” not every cow is sacred.

This, of course, is wonderful news for America. The sooner these corrupt enterprises disappear, the better. New Media just has to be ready to pick up the pieces with an infrastructure prepared to do original reporting and a staff that won’t eventually become every bit as corrupted as the journOlist clique that’s currently digging its own grave.