A.H. Belo Tries To Put A Good Face On It
Looking at the bright side, it reports that its first-quarter loss was less than last year’s first-quarter loss, $8.7 million vs. $9.4 million. On the other hand, revenue fell 9%. Ad sales fell 12%. I can sympathize. Market jitters hit D Magazine, too: our ad revenue is down about 5% for the same period.
As for the News’ circulation loss of 11% reported by Eric below, I believe it is necessary. The News has traditionally overdelivered because department stores wanted maximum market coverage. But this is a different day: smaller, more targeted circulation that pays full freight is the new rule for newspapers that hope to survive.
5 Comments to “A.H. Belo Tries To Put A Good Face On It”
Leave a Reply
All material copyright © 2008 D Magazine. All rights reserved.
If Mr. Allison can cross-post in his own blog, so can I. See my response below, to all this baloney:
http://frontburner.dmagazine.c...../#comments
We’re down 5 percent? By the Hammer of Thor! [Runs through plate-glass window, falls toward street below screaming, “I regret nothiiiiing!”]
Imagine how far down our ad sales would be if we hadn’t significantly increased the quality of our content over a year ago at this time.
@ Mart Cortland
“…if we hadn’t significantly increased the quality of our content over a year ago at this time.”
You mean DESPITE your concerted efforts to drag said content quality down?
Think just how much more circulation D would have if it narrowed its pages by 2 inches, narrowed its focus to north of downtown and ran really odd TV ads with creepy staffers.