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NEWS > BUSINESS > NEW YORK TIMES NO LONGER FIT TO PRINT
NEW YORK TIMES NO LONGER FIT TO PRINT
February 19 2009
New York, NY – With ad revenues sinking faster than the career of Eliot Spitzer, even the most venerable of publications are being pushed to the brink. Founded in 1851, The New York Times has been the ‘National newspaper of record’ is finding itself on the precipice of extinction as its stock prices, for the first time, fell lower than the cost of the paper itself. As newspapers across the country begin to shut down many fear that the days of transmitting news in print have changed forever, and that the need to continue producing paper of any kind isn’t far behind.
“When a small town newspaper with limited circulation shuts down no one really gets bent too out of shape, aside from the employees and ownership that is but when it’s a high profile paper suddenly people start to take notice. The inevitable demise of the Times as well as other major papers is not a result of the economy, but a result of changing times, so to speak,” said Scrape TV Business analyst Ken Green. “The truth is we are in an age of massive change, as fundamental and profound a change as when Gutenberg first produced the printing press and the death of the Times is just a symptom of that. Perhaps this economic turmoil will help get rid of the slack that has so needed to go."
Aside from the loss in advertising revenue, it is estimated that the New York Times costs more than $600 million a year to simply publish, outside the cost of supporting the news rooms. Web publishing costs just fragments of that annually and digital publication on devices like Amazon’s Kindle even less, though it is unlikely venerable papers will move to that model.
“Resources like newsprint cost more to produce than they ever have and that will only get worse. With trade restrictions and environmental concerns, trees are more expensive than they ever have been. The truth though is that people don’t want to change and they would rather do without than adapt,” continued Green. “Without change though, the news will suffer. The blogosphere is not what one would call the peak of journalism and without real news in the stream keeping things to a certain standard, we run the risk of not having any news what so ever, just imaginative and exploitive publication.”
Rumours abound that executives at the Times are considering printing the paper on stock certificates, though at this point the value hasn’t yet bottomed out enough to make that viable.
“Stock certificates will be printed no matter their cost so recycling them into actual printed paper might be a good option for the paper. Eventually the readership and the stock will dip so low that it will be feasible to do that,” continued Green. “There is talk of the Times and other important publications leaving the for profit realm and surviving on endowments but cost of materials, specifically ink and paper, is only going to go up as demand drops, making it more expensive to produce. They need to start thinking in a different direction or they are going to go down and take journalism with them.”
The New York Times is as iconic a figure in both New York and the United States as a whole and many fear that the growing possibility of the demise of the paper presages a demise of the city and country as a whole.
“Most people don’t realize that Times Square is named after the paper. The influence that the publication has had on the city is profound and its collapse is seen by many as a disaster. Mostly by old people of course, but nonetheless,” continued Green. “Times, so to speak, change and people need to change with them. The days of reading the morning newspaper with your breakfast are dwindling and it doesn’t matter if people like it or not, it’s happening. We are getting to a point where people need to realize that it’s the content that’s important and not the delivery system. Unfortunately the content isn’t very good any more either, so we are kind of stuck.
At the time of publication, New York Times stock has fallen to nearly $3.51.The cost of purchasing the paper is $4.00. Officials have no plans on lowering the price of the paper, nor raising the price of the stock.
William Ashford, Business Correspondent
NEWS > BUSINESS > NEW YORK TIMES NO LONGER FIT TO PRINT
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