Bankruptcies, mergers, closures, predicted for newspapers
Experts aren’t exactly going out on a limb when predicting that this may be the worst year ever for newspapers, at least in terms of advertising revenue. However, Richard Perez-Pena’s in the June 23 New York Times quotes two analysts who put the crisis in unusually stark terms.
Says Goldman Sachs analyst Peter S. Appert: “I think the probability is very high that there will be a number of examples of individual newspapers and newspaper companies that fall into a loss position. And I think it’s inevitable that there will be closures in this industry, and maybe bankruptcies.”
Benchmark Co. analyst Edward Atorino adds that “if we have double-digit ad declines for two years, some newspapers will be in real financial jeopardy.”
“You’re going to see structural changes: papers could drop a day or two per week, they could outsource printing,” he told the Times.
