It isn’t only the Lancaster Newspapers that are becoming thinner, month by month.
Published reports indicate that even the advertising revenue for the vaunted New York Times fell about 21% in November as compared to a year earlier. This is after a 16% drop in October.
Classified ad revenue, one of the most profitable segment of newspapers, fell by a full third!
The one bright spots was an increase in the Internet as a contributor to revenue from unde 11% to over 12%, month to comparable month. The question is whether Internet revenue can ever grow sufficiently to maintain the print medium over the decade to come.
Few enterprises can experience such drops in revenue and remain profitable. Lancaster can no longer look to the Steinman enterprises to continue to altruisticly and financially take the lead.
Hopefully Lancaster General Hospital, our last relatively public spirited and highly profitable institution, will step up to fill the leadership and funding gap.
