Once a Giant

It was announced Monday that The New York Times is officially cutting 100 more newsroom jobs through buyouts or layoffs.  Newspapers are struggling, I’m pretty sure that is no longer a secret.  It is an incredibly difficult situation in this day and age.  Everyone can get news on the internet for free, why pay for something you can get instantly without charge?  And now, when you throw in environmental awareness, why use paper when you don’t need to?  The New York Times has to rely solely on advertisers, and they are just not there as much as they were in the newspaper heyday.   Newsroom staff have recently taken a 5% pay reduction after 100 jobs were cut in 2008.  The pay cuts were made in hopes that there would no longer be a need for more layoffs.  Now, 100 more people are considered statistics.  You have to begin to wonder what the future of newspaper is really looking like.  This problem is not exactly reflective of the economy.  In fact, online news outlets have seen visitation rise 7% just in the last few months.  People are still reading the news, many are probably even more interested during these times.  Even if the economy was strong, people are still going to be smart with their money.  It is common sense, why pay for something you have for free?  Online news outlets are updated 24/7, if big news breaks at midnight, you can read about it minutes later, you no longer have to wait for the next day.  The fact is, by the time the paper actually arrives in your hand, most of the news is old.  Of course, there are people that find leisure and solitude in reading the paper, but is that enough?  The paper may have lost, and is certainly losing it’s mass appeal, but news is not.  All business learns to move with the times, it will happen organically.  But, as of now, it is incredibly unfortunate to continuously hear such awful news coming from the newspaper industry.