Dead Wood Media

The era of print journalism is over.

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

When is the last time you physically picked up and read a newspaper?

I can’t remember exactly when I have other than it was years ago, and it was a complementary USA Today I received at a hotel I stayed at.

Now I read news articles from “newspapers” almost daily, but several news apps deliver that to me on my phone.

Newspapers are dead.

Angela Fu writing for Poynter reports that Gannet, the nation’s largest newspaper company and the parent company of the Des Moines Register, reported a $27.8 million loss in the 2023 and that was better than 2022:

Gannett — the largest newspaper company in the country — ended the fourth quarter of 2023 with a $22.9 million loss. Its total loss for fiscal year 2023 was $27.8 million, an improvement from 2022, when it reported a $78 million loss. Executives on the company’s earning call struck an optimistic tone, noting that Gannett had grown its digital audience and revenues. They expect the company to hit its “inflection point” — when revenue flips from declining to growing — near the end of 2024.

They expect to break even by 2026.