Smaller U.S. papers seeing growth

Posted by Emily Dilling on July 9, 2009 at 9:19 AM

While the Inland Press Association reports an overall 77.6 percent profit drop for the newspaper industry, papers with a circulation of below 15,000 remain above water, boasting a gross revenue growth of 2.5 percent for the five-year period ending in 2008, the Inland Press Association reported Tuesday.

Frank Reed, of Marketing Pilgrim, posits that the growth in ad-related revenue could be due to "the lack of online hyperlocal content thus allowing the paper to still be relevant." Less business expenses, overhead and debt could also be part of smaller papers' success.

In particular, smaller local papers have seen their classified ad sales increase. The Inland Press Association found an example of one paper that saw its classified ads revenue increase by 210.4 percent in the course of four years. However, the paper ultimately saw its profits drop by 30 percent.

According to the Inland Press Association, "it would be a mistake to think that the Internet and the bad economy have resulted in declining profits at all U.S. dailies."

The study found that "10 papers with 15,000 circulation or less reported increasing their operating profit over the past five years. In the 15,001 to 25,000 category, eight papers increased their profit as did one daily in the 25,001 to 50,000 circulation category. All the papers with greater circulation posted shrinking profits over the same time frame."