The death knell for the print newspaper seems to be ringing louder every day. The skyrocketing rise in Internet journalism has hit the once profitable print industry hard, with powerful papers like the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times (along with hundreds of local papers) forced to lay off employees or shut down their presses entirely. Are we witnessing the end of print, or have reports of its death been greatly exaggerated?
The tens of millions of people newspapers reach every day and the success the industry is having in extending our audience is hardly the profile of a dying medium.
This year’s presidential election offered some stunning evidence– millions of Americans who stood in long lines after Barack Obama’s historic victory to obtain a copy of their local newspaper to commemorate the occasion. News racks were emptied, convenience store inventories were depleted and newsstands in cities big and small were “sold out.” Despite an increase in press runs for an expected surge in single-copy sales, many newspapers had to restart the presses and publish extra editions to satisfy readers. In Chicago, The Tribune printed an additional 200,000copies. Newsstands across New York City sold out of The New York Times, the Daily News and the New York Post. The Washington Post quickly sold out of its extra single copies before publishing 150,000 copies of a commemorative edition that hit the street by Wednesday afternoon.
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