Old media is still having trouble dealing with the new era. That was the strongest message at the Argyle Executive Forum on Leadership in Media in New York Wednesday. A stellar group of media executives mostly associated with “old media” lamented the end of the days of fat profits and the lack of a clear new business model in the age of the Internet.
Norman Pearlstine of the Carlyle Group told attendees that newspapers enjoyed a brief period of monopoly that attracted investors and convinced many families to take their businesses public. However, he said, for most of its history, the newspaper business did not enjoy the double-digit margins that characterized the 1980s and 1990s. “At the end of the 19th century there were 29 newspapers in Chicago,” he said.
Mr. Pearlstine said that profits soared when afternoon papers died off in the 1960s and 1970s as commuting and reading habits changed. Nowadays most cities have one newspaper, maybe two, often operating under an agreement that lets them share resources like a printing plant. READ MORE...
Comments