Top 25 things vanishing from America: # 23 -- Newspaper classifieds
Filed under: Shopping
This series explores aspects of America that may soon be just a memory -- some to be missed, some gladly left behind. From the least impactful to the most, here are 25 bits of vanishing America.
The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free online listings at sites like Craigslist.org and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them. And if we lose our daily newspapers, or they get severly damaged by cutbacks, then we lose our independent check on our government and we risk living in tyranny.
Newspaper are, of course, dying a slow death caused by cutbacks, with circulation down 3.6% on weekdays and 4.6% on Sundays in 2008 so far. The latest study of readership shows more declines among 18-24-year-olds, and another study says that people in that age group turn first to TV for their news, and to print newspapers a distant fifth.
Most newsrooms have suffered deep layoffs and buyouts, even top tier ones like the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. The Boston Globe just floated a 10% wage cut proposal. There are very few newspapers left with foreign bureaus or bureaus in other cities (even Washington, D.C.). The latest trend is to cut arts coverage and let go film, TV, music and art critics. Some small papers are going out of print completely, like two papers recently did in Wisconsin.
Is this all because of the death of print classified advertising? No, but that was a major revenue source. You can also blame ad dollars continuing to migrate to the web and TV, and subscribers dwindling because they get their news elsewhere (like AOL, for instance). Then there's the rising cost of paper, travel, gas and everything else. Newspapers just can't make it anymore.
Determining the fate of civilization in the absence of newspapers, however, is more complicated, because the Internet is working out a solution for delivering the news. Independent media is alive and well, and even doing better in the digital age than our traditional mainstream news media, which has long suffered at the hands of major corporations.
Update: these comments are even more prescient in light of the bankrupcy of the Tribune Company and the announcement that both Detroit dailies were cutting back home delivery to three days a week.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-15-2008 @ 11:58AM
Liz said...
well if I can take this one step further into the future ... the bitter reality is that the "monsters" of the world, are dying a slow death as well. Using the ole fundamental approach of ads and boards is a time-suck, money-pit, call it what you want. There are sites like Dayak popping up on the internet to correct the inefficiencies of the hiring process and establish a true "recruiting marketplace" machine.
just my 2-cents. BTW great series of articles... I have an opinion on almost almost all of the vanishing areas.
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7-16-2008 @ 12:04AM
Dennis M Poston said...
The end of newspapers and the entire mainstream media for that matter would be a good thing. They only report items that furhter their agenda anyway, and I don't agree with their agenda ie hate US ect. They've been accelerating their own demise for years but insist they are right. Good riddance!!!!!!
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7-17-2008 @ 3:17PM
melissa said...
we really have a big problem if people consider the abcense of newspapers a complication in," determining the fate of civiilization" because believe me i have an unsettling feeling that what we r all going thru right now with friends, family, soul mates, our beloved animal teachers and companions. myself alone i know 4 people with cancer, and i have an aunt who never smoked a day in her life and she is in the endstages of cancer which began in her lungs and spread at such an unuasally fast rate that when she found out she had cancer it had already spread to her liver, kidneys and i'm not sure where else but she has if she is lucky 2 months left to live!!!! she was diagnosed about 3 months ago. can you imagine going to see your doctor for something you my not feel extremly sick from, and you may even think what ever it is, is probably nothing serious. and you find out within 4 to 5 days you only have a few months left to live? this happens to thousands if not millions of people a day. and with the medicare and medi-cal cut backs, i know for a fact with 100% certainty this may not effect you dirrectly and it may not even being effecting you right now but, and i say this with a heart so filled with sorrow for everyone, because at some point it wil end up effecting you as well. i could go on and on, but lets be real here no matter how many TRUTHS i could tell u about, the self preservation of denial, rationalization, justification, will step in for all of u out there who fear the death of a loved one, or finding out for yourself that you dont have much longer to live. this is all happening partly because life in this day and age is so cheap, when, in reality, its just the oppisite life is priceless but untill we the citizens of every counrty, state, provence, city, town, territory etc., decide to fight the oppresion of authority nothing will change!!
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7-17-2008 @ 12:23AM
Allen Feld said...
I work in classifieds for a publication in California and believe me, Craig's list is slowly eliminating paid employment advertising in newspapers. In Santa Barbara seven years ago the average Sunday employment section was 16 pages. They're lucky to get 4 pages now.
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12-24-2008 @ 11:01AM
Scott Brown said...
You have a lot of jobs available in Santa Barbara? I should think the unemployment rate nationwide would've reached California by now. Then again, shouldn't the Real Estate section's expansion be making up the difference?
Sorry, a little recession humor, there.
Seriously, our reliance on the Internet for so many things (including our informed viewpoints on what is really happening at home and abroad, in every area of our lives), is a two-edged sword. Instead of unmanageable tens of thousands of local publications scattered throughout the civilized world, we've now got an electronic window into the world. The MSM has been consolidated under the aegis of a half-dozen vested corporations owing to deregulation. What we have left, for unmonopolized news and opinion, the Internet, is extremely fragile. It is a single news gateway which is under constant attack, paradoxically enough, by lobbied efforts to regulate freedom of speech on the Internet.
I just hope that when the dust clears from the print-media debacle, all the small-town printing presses have not been auctioned off on e-Bay.
1-02-2009 @ 1:23AM
G Groghan said...
Oh come one. how deceived are u? Do you think time warner/aol will report real news? Only if it's in the "corporation"'S best interests. They want to strangle any local efforts to report relevant news. Corporate america is evil.
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3-03-2009 @ 11:07PM
LA Kristiansen, American Classified Services, Inc. said...
I own a newspaper classified placement agency and have worked in the newspaper industry since 1990. I have definitely seen changes in the classified section of major daily papers. From working with newspapers all over the country, I see things that other individuals may not.
For instance, many newspaper companies like the Gannett or metro papers have online sites that they do forced buys with. For instance, if a small company is running a help wanted ad for a clerical position, now they can't simply run a classified ad in the local paper, but they are forced into paying a higher rate as their ad will automatically be added to the CareerBuilder.com website.
Many employers do not want this coverage or cannot afford it. I have had clients who for one reason or another specifically ask not to run their ads online. In many cases, we cannot get around this. One particular paper in Connecticut told me that they could omit the website coverage, but there would be no price break to do so!
I think the internet has freaked publishers out. Initially, they were afraid that they couldn't compete and were in a tizzy. Then they decided to embrace the web by going online. Then, either by greed fear of declining revenue, they increased classified rates and required advertiser to pay for online exposure that they may not necessarily want. Unfortunately, these forced buys alienate some of the advertisers that would still be advertising with them had they not gotten greedy!
Print media is not a thing of the past. Smaller community papers and free community papers are all doing extremely well in their classified sections. A lot of the problems in the metropolitan newspapers are of their own doing. Either with their editorialization of the news or these increased rates, they are somewhat their own worst enemy.
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