I am quite aware of other models and how having ALL income from advertising does work...it's interesting that there are some that are very successful.Newspapers make the lion's share of their income from advertising dollars. Some, in fact, make ALL their income from that source, for example, those free local newspapers and niche papers you see here and there.
I do undesrtand that with the daily papers that the BULK is from adverising..that is quite clear. I must ask again why these papers are rising the price of their papers?? If this money is "chump change" and not a factor...why double it? I think whatever their income it is now worse...in other words the income from 50 cents maybe was more than now when they charge a dollar..meaning that while prices have doubled, the number of papers sold has more than halved. But why do that? Why not have a larger circulation and 50 cent price..an dhave a chance at a larger audience and more advertising money?Now, papers hook those advertisers into paying by running articles that excite the readership, or provide information in one place that folks used to not be able to get anywhere else. TV listings, movie reviews, HS sports reporting, recipies, obituaries, "about town gossip" etc. This had folks subscribing to the paper, and the larger the subscription base, the more people would see the ads (or potentially see them).
Papers originally charged a subscription fee based upon delivery costs, and a couple pennies extra. The larger the subscriber base, the more ads they could rake in and the more they could charge for those ads.
When people started to drop subscriptions, papers initially responded by increasing subscription rates. That just caused more people to leave, initiating the death spiral. s subscribers left, advertisers took note and scaled back their spending in papers. That money started to go to radio, the intertubes, and TV instead. With more people tuning in to television, TV execs were able to adjust pricing to allow for more local advertising, which you may have noticed the past several years. ,
I agree they do need to find a way..and obviosuly since they are losing even MORE income via a higher price, why not TRY and get more from online. My only question will be how reasonable they will be?? And if they see this as a cash cow, how quickly will they raise rates??It's all relative. Right now, papers need to find a way to geberate income, and their best place, presently, is online. A couple of major regional newspapers have already gone completely online, dropping their print copy. We'll see how that works out, but it appears to me that that will be the future of all news, except for some select local markets, like those free ones you get at grocery stores, etc.
respects,