[jyl]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

If they're thriving, it's only by consolidating staff. Now, instead of having 3-4 reporters for every beat, they have one reporter covering 3-4 beats. The NYT online used to be subscription only, then they changd it. Ditto for WSJ, then they made the Opinion section no sub. required. The WaPo has consolidated a lot. They're all hurting badly and that hurts the AP and Reuters too, since AP's and Reuters's subscription fees are based on members' audience and circulation numbers. As those numbers dwindle, so do their fees and thus their ability to send pool reporters all around the world.

Circulation of the top newspapers has stopped declining, in some cases is going up. See below, from 2nd UPDATE: New York Times Circulation Edges Up On WSJ -Audit Bureau - WSJ.com

"Overall newspapers saw increased circulation of their digital editions, suggesting a continuing shift in reading habits. Circulation of Sunday editions, typically more profitable than weekday papers, also increased.

The Wall Street Journal had average weekday circulation of 2.1 million as of March 31, up 0.02% from a year earlier, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. News Corp. (NWS, NWSA) owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal and this newswire.

The New York Times retained the No. 3 rank at 1.6 million weekday papers, an improvement of 73% from a year earlier. The bulk of the growth came from new subscriptions after an online paywall was established at the Times last year. Paid digital subscriptions at the Times and its sister publication, the International Herald Tribune, increased to 454,000, a 16% gain from the prior quarter, the company said last month.

Gannett Co.'s (GCI) USA Today held its second place rank by average weekday circulation with 1.82 million subscribers, down 0.6%. USA Today had been the biggest paper in the U.S. for a decade, but a slump in business travel has meant fewer copies of USA Today were sold to hotels, one of the paper's historic strengths. The Wall Street Journal overtook USA Today by daily average circulation starting in 2009.

Newspapers are struggling to grow as more readers turn to the Internet for news; a trend publishers were in general slow to capitalize on by establishing online paywalls. Newspapers including The Wall Street Journal and Pearson PLC's (PSO, PSON.LN) Financial Times have for years protected their digital content behind paywalls. Gannett introduced paywalls at its local papers earlier this year, while USA Today remains free of charge online.

Analysts remain skeptical that digital growth can make up for the ongoing slide in print edition sales.

"Some companies [such as NYT] have demonstrated that consumers are willing to pay a premium for differentiated content," write J.P. Morgan analysts. But "for the industry overall, the impact of print declines is likely to outweigh any digital benefit for the foreseeable future." "