Newspaper Circulation Down - An Offer of Help

Newspapers continue to lose readers - as you probably read on Drudge. The overall number is down 2.6 percent. The top 20 newspapers were announced Monday, with the San Francisco Chronicle dropping an eye-catching 15.6%. I haven’t heard the Oregonian’s new number but the September, 2005 one was 394,992. Nice of them to be so precise. It would have been 394,993 but one guy dropped a quarter just as he was buying it, affecting the largest reported circulation which is the stat they use.
Whatever the Oregonian’s new number, newspapers are going to have to change to keep in the game. If they ever have a plasma computer monitor that is newspaper-sized, I would have a tough time going out to buy the real thing. And let’s face it – once it’s on the computer it’s a website, even if they figure out a way for your computer to leave newsprint on your hands.
I hope that day never completely gets here. I sure love my morning ritual of going out and getting coffee and the paper. If that ended tomorrow I would feel terrible.
So here’s my first application on the blog. Peter Bhatia, if you’re reading this, you should respond. Not with that high definition jive, but with some new blood. I wrote over 150 columns for the Tribune, and I’ve written for one other paper in town. Why not go to the Blog World and get some fresh troops? Keep everyone you have, but augment, baby, augment. You people are the local front of the national battle to keep daily newspapers. It’s a noble struggle and I’d love to help. I don’t want to walk by H&B Loan one day and see the Pulitizer Prize in the pawn shop window. Call me. Let’s see…I believe this makes around 10 times I’ve applied. The only difference is our relative claims on the future are shifting. Let me be a hero for you. I’ll even write in high definition, whatever that means.