FYI: Top 10 newspaper industry stories of the year
Editor & Publisher
December 23, 2009
By Joe Strupp
Another year of changes for the newspaper industry, not to mention E&P. We saw mobile sprint forward, print decrease, employees give back, and some familiar faces depart. Still, the news is being delivered and the newsrooms continue to hum, in most places, even at reduced volume.
With that, my annual list of the Top 10 Newspaper Industry Stories of the Year:
10. E&P’s SHUTDOWN …
9. PULITZER PRIZE WEB EXPANSION – This marked the first year the Pulitzers accepted entries from web-only news outlets.… Just last month … the Pulitzer Board voted to allow even more Web-only entries, changing its rules for 2010 to lift the requirement that they come from sites devoted to original reporting. Bloggers, come on in!
8. EDITORIAL CARTOONIST CUTS …
7. BOSTON GUILD SHAKE-UP …
6. TOP EDITORS LEAVING – A string of top newspaper editors left their jobs, and in most cases the newspaper industry. Departures in 2009 included … Jim Willse at The Star-Ledger …
5. DETROIT CUTS FREQUENCY – Both the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News dropped a bombshell on the industry in March when they cut back home delivery to three days per week. That meant only the Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions would be dropped on doorsteps. Single-copy sales remained seven-days, but the decision is clearly a move away from print that others are likely to follow.
4. DENVER, SEATTLE BECOME ONE-NEWSPAPER TOWNS …
3. BANKRUPTCIES – Journal Register Company … emerged from bankruptcy, while … Philadelphia Media Holdings entered that difficult world. … But, on a good note, newspaper stocks began a comeback after hitting historic lows. Let’s hope that continues.
2. FURLOUGH FANATICS – After cutting jobs for years, newspapers turned to unpaid furloughs more than ever in 2009 as a way to cut costs, but not people. …
1. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS – More than 40,000 newspaper jobs were lost in 2009, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. … The count at the end of 2009 is 284,220 jobs. In 1999, that number was at 424,500. If things don’t slow down, any attempt to properly cover news, and write and edit it, will be lost if it hasn’t been alre…