It is obviously not unusual to receive complaints about content when you’re running a newspaper. Yes, a lot of the time readers felt we missed the point of a story or didn’t have all the facts. Occasionally, they were right. But surprisingly, one of the bigger issues brought to my attention over the years was that the headline didn’t tell the same story as the story itself.
Writing headlines is tricky business. To sum up a story, to gain someone’s attention and to make it fit in a small space can be quite the challenge. I’ve worked with some individuals that were masterful at this and could create fantastic headlines for just about anything. Others – like me – always struggled with headlines. That’s why I have such respect for the headline writers of the New York Post, where you can find a witty, sharply written headline just about every day. Some – many of them are a little off color, but there is no denying how well-crafted they are.
This week, a headline about the newspaper industry caught my attention. Perhaps a ray of hope in the business I still love, I thought. The headline – “U.S. digital newspaper ad revenue expected to surpass print by 2026”. Maybe it was my interpretation and not the headline that was the problem. I was imagining that the industry had created an upward trend in digital revenue after 2+ decades of trying and failing. But like so many people that called my office over the years to complain that the headline and the story didn’t match up, diving into the details I saw the real story behind the headline.
In Sara Fischer’s article for Axios Media Trends the picture, in this case a graph, was worth a thousand words. The graphic showed that digital revenue was basically a flat line and that print revenue continues to free fall. “The U.S. is expected to make history in 2026 when it becomes the first major media market in the world to see digital newspaper ad revenue eclipse print newspaper ad revenue,” writes Fischer. No one will be celebrating this milestone.
Factually true, newspapers will see digital advertising revenue surpass print advertising revenue. But the industry has backed into that distinction through a variety of mistakes and missed opportunities since the late 1990s. The industry may in fact be digital first in a couple years, but many newspapers including large chains continue to turn their back on digital ad revenue. It is still common for newspapers digital revenue to be driven by digital packages tied to print products. Sadly, there are still many newspapers that sell print ads and then somewhere on their website post pdf copies of the ads in a marketplace, charging advertisers for these ads that no one clicks on or sees. A boss of mine 20 years ago called this type of practice a dark, seedy alley where no one travels in the world of the information super-highway. That still happens today and is basically just taking people’s money.
Available inventory on newspaper websites continues to suffer behind paywalls. I’m a believer of paywalls, but the increase in a hard paywall that shuts out the reader on their first story is not good for newspapers. It reduces the number of page views that advertising can sell. It also forces readers to look for alternative sources for news. In my market just yesterday, a former NBA player and local sports star passed away. The local newspaper’s story could not be accessed, so I found out what I wanted from local TV and radio station sites. Is there a number of pageviews? – 2, 5, 10 – that newspapers should allow before shutting off the paywall? It’s tough to strike that balance of wanting people to see value in your reporting vs. showing that you are doing valuable reporting while giving the ad staff pageviews to sell.
While there are some newspapers and chains that have embraced digital opportunities, in general the newspaper industry focused on print revenue, despite the warning signs. Newspapers have the best product to combat the migration to digital platforms. TV / Cable is faced with YouTube and countless streaming opportunities. Radio stations are up against alternative streaming services. But the digital alternative to a physical newspaper is the same newspaper’s website. But in many cases, newspaper owners passed by that opportunity to continue their focus on print revenue, and now that well is drying up. Readers, like I mentioned earlier, have found alternative sources for news.
It is possible to grow digital revenue on the local level. Look at the radio industry, facing many of the same challenges of the newspaper industry. Both industries survive on local budgets. But while newspaper digital revenue has been flat for two decades, digital revenue for radio stations has grown dramatically according to Statista. Google and Facebook are becoming go-to resources for small businesses, by-passing traditional media outlets. But there are still opportunities for digital growth in a local market and scrappy – innovative radio stations are proving it.
Newspapers just failed to answer the door when opportunity was knocking. Again.
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