We don't have a readership problem, but we do have a revenue problem. More specifically, we have a vexing issue that has shaken our business model like the Nisqually quake, cracking its foundation and leaving us looking for new, more durable ways to reconstruct it.
The fundamental issue: the loss of classified advertising in the printed newspaper.
Classifieds — the "want ads" for everything from cars, houses and jobs to pianos, kayaks and golden retrievers — were for the last three decades of the 20th century the mother's milk of daily newspapers. By the year 2000, they accounted for 50 percent of this company's advertising revenue.
Then, thanks in part to a Bay Area entrepreneur named Newmark and his free, online "craigslist," the bottom dropped out. In the past eight years, revenue from classifieds has fallen by two-thirds, and they now account for only 20 percent of total ad income.
I don't think Boardman should be boasting about circulation growth. The hard numbers show circulation at Seattle Times (which is half-owned by McClatchy) grew a paltry 0.5 percent in the 6-month period ending March 31. The circulation of the Sunday edition (which is combined with the Press-Intelligencer) shrank 3.4 percent.
And Boardman's plans to increase revenue? He has no plans. All he can say is the newspaper needs to work on it. Get this:
In the short term, we need to bring our expenses into line with our reduced revenue. And for the longer term, we need to find new ways to make the money needed to pay for the kind of public-service journalism to which we are committed, and which you so clearly value.
Announcing "we need to find ways to bring in more revenue" is a non-answer, which tells you all you need to know about the Seattle Times' ability to stop the bleeding.
