Another report showing newspapers suck

I don't know about anyone else, but my Ad Age, I swear, comes a different day each week...so who knows how old this news is, but hey...it's new to me.

Page 4 has a listing of the top 25 newspapers in the US and their readership between 1990 and 2008. Five papers have an increase in readership....Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, Houston Chronicle and the Arizona Republic. The rest average 31.47% decline...with some papers losing as much as 50% and 60% of their readership.

So what is going on with the paper? Ad Age discusses the 'Sunday Focus' which is basically the understanding that more and more people are just getting the Sunday paper...it has the most deals, the most 'guck' as my parents put it, the most info. Everything is moving to the Sunday paper...

I don't subscribe to a paper, if I want a paper, I'll go out Sunday morning and buy one. And I'm not getting it for the news, I go online for that. I can get it a lot faster! I buy it for coupons, and 'extras' like reviews from people I know and trust. But that's it.

Sure the newspaper industry is trying to move online, and that is helping a lot - I think. Nationally, I think we'll see a real funnel down to only a couple news sources, because it will be where everyone goes. Locally...the info isn't in the newspapers. It's in blogs.

Two communities near me have bloggers who are going out and writing their own news.

Jennifer Zartman-Romano used to work (maybe she still does, not sure...never met her just read the blog) for the local paper. She now hosts 'Talk of the Town' - a blog for Columbia City, Indiana. She reports news, takes pictures does everything. She even has people helping her! It's a great tool and even older folks are chiming in - my grandpa is a regular reader.

Seth Anderson over at HuntingtonDaily.com is starting his own news blog. It's neat to watch both blogs grow and see where they lead.

It is in sites like these that the real news will begin to come out. It's faster, cheaper and interactive. Something that newspaper business has never had. Kudos to Jennifer and Seth, thank you for doing what you do and for working to keep the local news fresh for all of us!