Bad News for Projo - Price Increases to $3, Circulation Drops to 41K and More
GoLocalProv Business Team
Bad News for Projo - Price Increases to $3, Circulation Drops to 41K and More
Financial Troubles, Falling Circulation
The Providence Journal has raised its rates again. The newspaper operated by New York-based GateHouse Media has raised its daily per copy cost to $3 for newsstands. The increase represents a 20 percent increase over the previous $2.50 per copy.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTWeekday circulation has dropped to 41,000 — according to Ted Nesi at WPRI, “The paper's paid print circulation was about 41,000 on weekdays at the end of 2018, down from 48,000 a year earlier and 63,000 as recently as 2015. The Providence Journal once had a daily circulation of 200,000."
Projo's publicly traded parent company -- New Media Investment Group -- saw a 13.7 percent decline in print revenue at same-store (newspapers) year-over-year according to the publicly traded company that operates GateHouse. “Total Print Advertising decreased 13.7% from prior year on an organic same-store basis to $618.3 million,” the company reported in its financials. New Media's overall revenue was up due to the acquisition of a number of newspaper chains.
WJAR-10 — Local Content Being Replaced By Associated Press
Much is made of the decline in local content in newspapers, but the once proud WJAR-10 is seeing similar content cuts. The station's obituary for actress Katherine Helmond was an Associated Press story and failed to give any mention to the actress having performed for years at Trinity Rep.
Digital Surpassing TV and Print Combined
eMarketer, the digital research firm, says that digital advertising will surpass traditional advertising for the first time and will capture more than half of all dollars spent by advertisers.
"This year, advertisers will spend $129.34 billion on digital ads vs. $109.48 billion on traditional advertising, which includes all non-digital options, such as television, magazines and newspapers."
Traditional ad spending will decline from $114.84 billion in 2018 to $104.32 billion in 2021, eMarketer forecasts. During that same period, digital ad spending will soar from $108.64 billion to $172.29 billion," according to Forbes.
Gannett's traditional print revenues are collapsing during a growth economy.
"Publishing segment operating revenues were $660.0 million, compared to $764.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017. On a same-store, day adjusted basis, Publishing segment revenues declined 9.8%. Further adjusting for the day trades, the decline was 8.5%. Same-store, day adjusted print advertising revenues for the quarter declined 21.3% year-over-year. Adjusted for the day trades, the decline was 19.6%, an improvement from the third quarter 2018 trend," said the company in its earnings reports for the Q4 and 2018.