Michael Moore-newspapers only themselves to blame

The film producer argues in this You Tube clip that American newspapers have no one but themselves to blame for their declining financial health

Moore said that newspapers, bought up by corporations in the last generation, have pursued profits at the expense of news gathering. By basing their businesses on advertising over circulation, newspaper owners have neglected their true economic base and core constituency

via Huffington Post

Advertising dives in America

A good post from Alan Mutter who reflects on the worst quarter for American newspapers in recorded history

Alan writes that

advertising sales fell by an unprecedented 28.3% in the first three months of 2009, plunging sales by more than $2.6 billion from the prior year.

adding that

print ad sales fell by a historic 29.7% to $5.9 billion in the first period of this year and that online sales fell a record 13.4% to $696.3 million.

The worst falls were in classifieds for employment real estate and cars which saw fall in excess of 40 per cent

White House Press secretary doesn't like British newspapers

The American's are obviously not that keen on the British newspapers at least according to this report from journalism.co.uk when Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary said

“‘Let’s just say if I wanted to look up, if I wanted to read a write-up of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper,” he continued. ‘If I was looking for something that bordered on truthful news, I’m not entirely sure it’d be the first pack of clips I’d pick up.’”

You can watch the video here

Government intervention-a warning

David Carr,writing in the New York Times raises concerns about the proposals for the governemnt to intervene in the newspaper industry in the States.

I’m all for journalists swarming the Hill, especially now that about half of the reporters who used to work there are gone, potentially leaving much of government to its own devices. But to leave our industry tin-cupping its way around a government it covers seems desperate and ill-advised: a cure that might be worse than the disease.

he writes adding that

Government bailouts, including special tax status, seem likely to kill independent journalism, not save it. A free press that serves at the pleasure of its government is a diminution of the intent of the founders and not, by the way, a free press.

Circulation plummets across the Atlantic

There was more evidence of the decline of newspapers across the Atlantic yesterday.

The Audit bureau released six month figures which editor and publisher says

for 395 newspapers reporting this spring, daily circulation fell 7% to 34,439,713 copies, compared with the same March period in 2008. On Sunday, for 557 newspapers, circulation was down 5.3% to 42,082,707.

For the top 25 newspapers in the United States,all saw falling circulations apart from the WSJ.the declines ranged from 20.6 percent for The New York Post, to a slight 0.4 percent drop for The Chicago Sun-Times.

Overall,circulation was down 7 per cent.

Marriott chain cuts back on newspapers

Another blow to the US newspaper industry is reported in the FT this morning.

Guests at Marriott International’s US hotels will no longer stumble over the familiar copy of USA Today as they leave their rooms, after falling demand prompted the group to announce changes to its free newspaper delivery system.

The report says that it could mean a cut of 18m newspapers a year and the chain puts it down to people checking the news on laptops and smartphones

The secret of successful local newspapers-perhaps

A story of how to run a successful local newspaper comes from David Carr at the New York Times who believes in the model of the Austin Chronicle which he says is

as funky and idiosyncratic as the town it covers, continues to thrive with a relentlessly local news agenda — state government, the school board and the City Council, along with deep coverage of the arts — and a willingness to lead, as opposed to simply criticize, in artistic matters.

The paper's secret apart from the fact that it is free is that it knits

into civic and cultural life in Austin to a degree that may make other newspapers nervous

and its editor adds

“We don’t do gotcha journalism, our coverage is very policy-oriented, and always local, local, local,”

Pew survey suggests Americans not that concerned about their local paper

A survey by Pew reveals that Americans are not that concerned about the den=msie of their local papers.(ht-Adrian Monck)

According to the survey

fewer than half of Americans (43%) say that losing their local newspaper would hurt civic life in their community "a lot." Even fewer (33%) say they would personally miss reading the local newspaper a lot if it were no longer available.

Amongst those that read the local product figures were rather higher,not surprisingly but even then only 56 per cent thought that losing the local paper would hurt local democracy

Top 10 US newspaper websites

The Biving's report has just produced its top 10 American newspaper sites

Newspapers selected were among the 100 largest in the U.S., and in addition to being judged by their abundance of web features, were graded on design and easy usability.

Top of the list was the New York Times which the report says

manages to combine classic style with managing a frequent onslaught of new web features,

closely followed by the Washington Post which whose home page it describes as crowded but buried beneath it

are some of the best efforts at direct user interactivity to be found among newspaper websites