Reading News: Amazing Math Equals Falling Revenues
April 17, 2009
If you are an MBA looking for work, you may want to check out the fancy math here. The article sports a remarkable title: “Print Is Still King: Only 3 Percent of Newspaper Reading Happens Online”. The author is Martin Langeveld. If an MBA finds the assumptions acceptable, that person may want to apply for a job at the Nieman Journalism Lab. I did not feel comfortable with the assumptions, so I resisted the main thrust of the write up. In my opinion, the numbers indicate that print newspapers have more reach and other goodness that online news does not. I think that online news has some major flaws, but traditional newspapers are not setting the world on fire. The other thought that crossed my mind is that those younger than I are into digital info and don’t see paper documents quite as old geese like me.
One final comment: if those eyeballs had value, the local newspaper would not have had to double the forced time off for certain staff. Gannett and other newspaper companies would be cashing checks, not riffing staff. With MBAs somewhat discredited, their math skills might mesh with analyses for the newspaper industry. Who knows? Fancy math might work and the media giants will once again rule the information universe.
Stephen Arnold, April 16, 2009
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