A pretty sobering story about the financial straits at the Journal Register Company. Henry Blodget weighs in as well with even grimmer analysis. At the same time, both note that the company is delivering strong operating profit, and its problems seem more related to debt via a bad acquisition than anything else -- but the sentiment -- newspapers are doomed -- certainly seems prevalent, comments which also are extended to magazines and TV/Radio as well under the rubric of "the mainstream media is screwed."
Let's count the challenges. More competition from onlines and blogs (Tom Foremski noted to me the other day how many "traditional" journalists are now working at blogs/blog networks that look amazingly like...newspapers), revenue loss via Craigslist and eBay, declining circulation, aging viewers and readers, questions about credibility and focus. Wow.
On the positive, Conde Naste seems to be doing quite well from an advertising and content standpoint. The BBC is rocking in the new media world. The Economist is growing ad pages and circulation. Some of the blog networks are doing some good work and filling a needed niche.
So, what does it all mean? In the media world, there are no universal truths. Maybe we should all take some deep breaths and stop applying a single lens to a multi-faceted, complicated world.
Update: David Carr profiles the Smoking Gun in today's NYT and makes good points about the ability of web journalism to have an impact. I don't agree with some of the commentary here, but the point below is certainly valid:
But The Smoking Gun has demonstrated that if you obey the metabolism of the Web, not the journalist, you can land with significant impact in a hurry.
Love that line -- the metabolism of the web.