“Death spiral” is preferred way to describe newspaper industry
Posted by Mediascaper on April 5, 2009
In “‘Death’ of papers seen as oversold” (April 1, 2009), the Washington Times looks at an ongoing journalistic craze with no end in sight: reporters navel gazing over every layoff, furlough and quarterly loss of ad revenue as signs of the coming apocalypse for the newspaper industry:
Each monetary woe — whether it’s the New York Times cutting salaries by 5 percent or layoffs at the Houston Chronicle — is lumped together under the heading “the death of newspapers.”
The exact phrase “death of newspapers” was used to headline or anchor more than 300 separate news stories in the past year, according to a Nexis search — that’s about 25 stories per month that have pronounced the death of the genre. “Death of print” is another favorite.
So is “death spiral,” which made an appearance (via citation) in my recent post Visual proof that newspapers are doomed.
In fact, it was seeing ”death spiral” for the umpteenth time that got me wondering: Is it my imagination, or has the term really been as overused as it appears?
Well, a search on Yahoo bears out my instinct. Below is just a small sampling of the uses of “death spiral” within a newspaper industry context. If I had access to Lexis/Nexis, I could have provided a more useful quantitative analysis, but this will suffice. I’ve bolded the instances of “death spiral” where it appears in each story’s text:
Laying the newspaper gently down to die — March 29, 2005 (Includes five instances of the phrase “death spiral,” all of which are taken from other articles.)
State of the News Media 2006, News Investment — May 8, 2006
When newspapers instead cut investment in news, according to Meyer, they risk a “death spiral” in which circulation falls, revenue growth slows and those developments are the rationale for further cuts.
Newspaper death spiral has begun — Dec. 11, 2006
Newspapers near “death spiral,” courtesy Web 2.0 — June 17, 2008
Has the death spiral begun? — June 17, 2008
Newspapers in a death spiral — Sept 1, 2008
Death Spiral — October 2008
The most lucrative arts advertising is movie ads. If Sony is noticing a hit to its business when newspapers dump their critics, how long do you suppose it’ll be before the movies ditch newspapers too? If the local department store or car dealership notice a drop in effectiveness of their ads when the political columnist or popular TV critic goes, they’ll follow too. A classic death spiral.
More bad news for newspaper: advertising at Gannett down 17.6% – Oct. 24, 2008
Now it’s official: the death spiral of newspapers is accelerating, with the largest newspaper publisher in the United States reporting an increased decline in advertising revenue.
Someone’s getting rich, someone’s getting laid off — more Creative Loafing blues — Nov. 14, 2008
The death spiral that newspapers are in seems now to be quickening, like the last ounces of water swirling down a drain.
Newspaper death spiral continues Nov. 27, 2008
Creative Loafing’s death spiral: More newspapers, less news — Nov. 28, 2008
The newspaper death spiral is accelerating: Classified ads down 31% Q3 –Nov. 29, 2008
Hub newspapers in death spiral — Jan. 2, 2009
As Boston’s two major dailies head towards a seeming financial death spiral, it’s time once again to ask whether they should be charging for access to online content.
Job cuts impact quality journalism: CAJ — Jan. 5, 2009
The retrenchment is so profound that the CAJ fears journalism in Canada is reaching a tipping point where the decline in the quality of news content will lead to an industry death spiral of less content, smaller audiences, and yet more cuts.
Newspapers facing a death spiral? — Jan. 7, 2009
Why regional print newspapers are in a death spiral — deteriorating content – Feb. 24, 2009
The death spiral of newspapers. What next? — Feb. 28, 2009
Chronicling the death of American newspapers — March 2, 2009
So the newspaper shrinks, attracting fewer readers, leading to a decline in advertising revenue, and the death spiral continues.
This entry was posted on April 5, 2009 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Newspaper industry, Online ad sales, Out of print, headlines, news industry, newspapers, newsroom layoffs, online advertising, print advertising. Tagged: Newspaper industry, death of print, Creative Loafing, Steve Fennessy, Resurgens, Atlanta Magazine, death of newspapers, death spiral, Washington Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Another Casualty said
We’ve been using “downward spiral” for about 28 months now — does that count?
Anthony Salveggi said
“Downward spiral” doesn’t quite convey the same sense of hopelessness and inevitability — one has a chance, small as it may be, to pull out of a downward spiral. As Paul Dailing might say, “Point goes to ‘death spiral.’”