Newspaper Buyouts on the Rise

By: Allison McNeal

Buyouts. Layoffs. Plunging sales. These are what many newspaper companies around the United States and locally are currently facing due to the increasing advances of the Internet. Online Websites and newspaper companies are starting to gain speed in replacing old-fashioned newspapers that used to be delivered to the doorstep.

On August 14th, Gannett Co., owner of The Des Moines Register, first startled the public that it would be cutting 1,000 current jobs and laying off 600.

Later, on August 29th, other top newspaper companies, such as The Chicago Sun, The Chicago Tribune, and McLatchy Co, which owns The Sacramento Bee and Fresno Bee, announed job cuts and buyouts as well. In south Florida, The Miami Herald, the South Flordia Sun-Sentinel, and The Palm Beach Post stated they would be merging for a three-month period because of the lack of newsroom employees (aol.com).

In this past year, newspaper sales have declined dramatically, leaving copy editors, reporters, and publishing companies to scramble to save their jobs.

According to the Associated Press, "Gannett saw non-broadcasting advertising revenue drop 11 percent year-over-year during the first five months of 2008 [... and] 16.3 percent in June and 16.7 percent in July compared with a year earlier" (aol.com).

Why have these newspaper companies declined so much in such a short amount of time? One reason may be because of online companies like Google Inc., which are finding support from international markets. With the access to different countries at a click of a button, it is hard for newspapers to keep up.

Another reason could come down to how fast news can be posted on the internet rather than in the newspapers. Most individuals want to know what is happening at the exact moment and do not want to feel like they are missing out. When a newspaper shows up at their doorstep, they may already know most of the news, so why would they read it?

On the other hand, newspaper publishers and people like Randy Bennett, who is senior vice president of business development for the Newspaper Association of America, believe that newspaper production will turn around and become sucessful again (aol.com).

I also am a firm believer that this cycle of internet reporting will start to dimish. Many online newspapers are making people subscribe to the publications, which could cost more than a standard newspaper.

Also, America prided itself in the invention of the printing press and the newsreel. What will happen to all the dedication that went along with distributing newspapers and the whole-some values that a newspaper could portray?