The Fragmentation Of Yesterday's Newspaper

The newspaper industry faces formidable challenges: In 2007, publicly traded US newspaper companies collectively lost $11 billion, or 26% of their value. Print circulation for paid newspapers in the US has fallen more than 16% since its peak in 1990, and coincident growth in online audiences and online ad revenue still falls short of filling the revenue gap left by the loss in print circulation. Newspapers, desperate to reshape their businesses to thrive in the digital era, must take stock of what's left of their core products. In this report, Forrester uses its Consumer Technographics® data to examine how content verticals that newspapers used to "own," from news and sports to jobs and real estate, have fragmented across different channels. Newspaper eBusiness executives must now shift their focus from content to audience, pursuing strategies of aggregation, syndication, and social engagement across all forms of media.