By B.J. Rains
It may seem crazy, but the recent housing crisis is actually helping newspapers. More and more houses are being forclosed at an alarming rate, and the result is more advertising revenue for newspapers. Forclosure notices are required to appear in newspapers and with houses forclosing at a record rate, newspapers are finding some much needed revenue.
Newspapers have long argued that websites such as craigslist have taken millions of dollars away from the online and print newspaper advertising but as the article says, foreclosure notices have to be in the newspaper and craigslist is not acceptable for them according to most local governments. Its a much needed stream of revenue for newspapers who have been struggling for a long time due to the decline in ad revenue and subscription revenue. The crisis will not last forever, but its a temperary help to some struggling newspapers budgets.
A new blog entitled the Newspaper Deathwatch lists the daily decline or gain of newspaper distribution of the top newspapers in the United States. Just to show how bad newspaper subscriptions are struggling, an example from the blog shows that "The New York Times lost more than 150,000 copies on Sunday. Circulation on that day fell a whopping 9.2% to 1,476,400." That is just rediculous that 150,000 copies are being lost in circulation from one day to the next. Something needs to be done to help these newspapers from going bankrupt.