Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Will newspapers bounce back when the recession is over? (updated)

Rick Edmonds says it could happen.

UPDATE: reader Walter Abbott doesn't buy it:
"... Craigslist, which gutted newspaper revenues, isn't going away. If anything, it will be duplicated, adding yet more competition to dead-tree classified.

Ditto car dealers. What buyer is going to search print newspaper ads when you can get detailed descriptions and many pictures on a website?"

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like many newsies, Edmonds often just makes it up. Craiglist, which gutted newspaper revenues, isn't going away. If anything, it will be duplicated, adding yet more competition to dead-tree classified.

Ditto car dealers. What buyer is going to search print newspaper ads when you can get detailed descriptions and many pictures on a website?

Walter Abbott

Anonymous said...

Ditto Walter, the last place I would look for a car would be in a newspaper ad. Bad photos, a small blip about a car, total waste of my time. One thing, the last time I looked at cars, the first question they asked was where I found the information that brought me into the showroom. I told him on the Internet site, and I didn't need a lot of information about the car, just the best price. That comment wasn't lost on him.

Anonymous said...

I'm looking for a used car now.

I've learned not to bother looking in the print edition for used car ads... the selection is awful because the number of ads in the Bee's print edition is tiny. Just a fraction of the ads in the SacBee from the last time I was shopping for a car.

Much better selection on Craigslist but you have to spend a little effort sorting out the bogus ads from the legit ads.

Anonymous said...

Classified revenue is racing to zero. It will never come back. The classifieds are like a typewriter. They served their purpose for a time, but that's over now.

Anonymous said...

Online car ads saves everyone’s time.
I asked for car information from an online dealers site. The online salesman and I had several back and forth e-mails. When I went in to get a serious deal going, I asked for the online salesman I had first contacted. He said he was going to introduce me to the salesman on the sales rotation, or something like that. I said, I don’t want another salesman, so he did continue our discussion.

Aside he said, he had become a popular point man for selling cars, and he had to share the wealth. So I gather the salesmen that ran from having to answer e-mail questions, are horning back in on the salesmen that had a vision of the future in car sales.

Anonymous said...

"The classifieds are like a typewriter. They served their purpose for a time, but that's over now."
Anon. 6:46
That is an excellent comparison. I had not thought of that, but you are spot on. The old buggy whip comparison was getting so old.

Anonymous said...

Though i agree with posters here that print is on its way out i do not think it will happen as quick as much of you are preying for.

222,723,436 Internet users as of Dec/08, 73.2% penetration, Nielsen//NR.

http://www.internetworldstats.com/america.htm

There is still 26% of people in america who do not have enternet access and that is still a large number of potential buyers. sure i guess there are less now than when this stat was generated but still a large number of folks.

business do not ignore that, yeah they will adjust advertising to focus on the new format for news online but will continue to advertise print. As long as there is someone willing to pay for advertising there will continue to be print media delivered.

i would like to think that this would bankrupt larger papers such as Mcclatchy but this gives them room to continue to operate and consolidate with the expansion of the internet. I think they may make it out of this yet. I am not rooting for them. I just cant ignore the revenue that is still being generated with print.

P:

Anonymous said...

Well, I am pretty sure that McClatchy is part owner of Cars.com Careerbuilder.com. So as more people put listings on those sites theoretically McClatchy makes money as well.

~byon~

Anonymous said...

Why would anyone go to Cars.com? You know they are jacking you for those ad costs. I would not believe any of their propaganda about car, just as I don’t believe anything else they touch. The cars they tout may be the ones that pay them to be on the site, just like the yellow pages of a phone book. Good grief, you think people aren’t onto these little games? Once McClatchy decided to become dishonestly biased, they lost credibility. That means they LOST ‘ALL’ CREDIBILITY!