Newspapers Are Still A $60 Billion-a-Year Industry

Great piece this morning on CNN.com/Fortune about the current state of the newspaper industry. Despite all the bad headlines, reports Richard Siklos, newspapers are still generating $60 billion in sales and still generating "decent profits." Yes, public stock investors are unhappy with the performance of newspaper stock prices, but that's another issue. And for sure, the major mainstream newspaper industry has done a terrible job adapting to the changing media landscape.

But Siklos' point, and one that I've made here many a time, is that newspapers are still a major medium that is going to evolve, not dry up and blow away. Savvy PR pros simply can't afford to either ignore or dismiss newspapers in favor of online communications.

Siklos mentions a few counter-trends that support the evolution-not-extinction theory, including the rise of themed special-interest magazines like the New York Times' "T" style mag. I would add a few other things I see:

• Healthy newspapers in fast-growing markets such as Las Vegas


• Tons of classified shoppers and other free media, such as hyper-local tabs


• Newspapers slowly adding social media features to their sites (example: the Springsteen section of NJ.com, an aggregate site for 14 New Jersey newspapers)

Bonus for PR pros: all of these are pitchable. They may be different journalists but they are still working journalists. So as they evolve, we need to as well.