Sorry to disappoint. The internet is only part of the equation. What is killing (not killed, yet) the newspaper industry is a combination of rising costs (Paper, Ink, Replacement parts, Delivery fees, staff wages) and loss of ad revenue (which is were the internet comes in).
I work for a small-town newspaper. We cover 3 1/2 Counties. Circulation is over 50k for a daily paper. We have been there since the late 1880's. We continue to put our news. In the early 1900's we averaged about 40 pages a day. Now we are down to 16 (always based on 4 pages). Back in the early 1900's we averaged about $0.5052 (in 2025 money) per page gross profit. Now, about $0.0032 per page. Yes, we track it down to that level and have since 1905.
The are multiple reasons:
- First is the cost of paper. In the 1900's paper was cheap, and I do mean cheap. A roll of paper was maybe $100 (again in 2025 dollars) and now they are upwards of over $500 per roll (thanks Trump, we can't buy US paper, it isn't made. We tried.) We need 2 rolls per day.
- Second is the cost of the aluminum plates we need, daily, to print the paper. We buy them by the Ton (think about a 1/2 height pallet worth) every 3 months. That's over $5000 for something we use once then thrown away. (local recycling company likes us and helps cut our overall cost of those plates down)
- Third is the cost of ink. We buy in bulk 3 times a year. The heavily concentrated ink run us about $20K per year. In the early 1900's that same ink for the larger run was around $500 per year in 2025 dollars. We did use less color back then.
- Fourth is the cost of staff. We have less than 50 employees now but the average wage is at about $18/hr. In the late 1900's the average wage was $12/hr and the early 1900's it was closer to $5/hour, again adjusted to 2025 dollars. 5 years ago we had 3 people in "Customer Service" our front line at the office. They took calls, handles Circulation, Classifieds, and routed things to reporters and Advertising staff. Now we have 1, which happens to be vacant at the moment. We put out notices we are hiring. 5 years ago we had over 100 applicants for the positions, so far after a month, we have had 3. Two of them wanted way more money than we can afford to pay, and the 3rd.. while they may get hired they are not going to last. Stereotypical Millennium attitude just isn't a good fit for Customer Service.
- Fifth is cost of hardware to even make the paper. Our press was put in place in 1968. It still runs. It still puts out very good quality papers, but it is 50+ years old. Parts are hard to find. We were lucky and were able to buy a duplicate press in 2000 from a newspaper that was going out of business. We have plenty of spare parts, at the moment. A replacement press? That is upwards of $20 million and at least a year before it can be installed. We use Intel Macs for most of our systems and will be using them until they fail. We can't afford to replace desktop machines whenever the OS and hardware manufacturers say we have to. We even have a test program to see if we can migrate most of our hardware to Linux and keep using the hardware even longer. $200-500 per machine (used/refurbished) is too much if we have to replace them every 3 years. We still have a couple of old WindowsXP machines, and several Mac OS9 machines around for specialized hardware controls. Replacing those? Won't happen as the hardware they control would also have to be replaced at costs upwards of $500,000 each. Next is the software need (not want, NEED) runs us over $500/month. We don't get a choice, there isn't a viable alternative to them, We have had to get creative in how we use the software by sharing a single machine, remotely, so that 4-5 people use a single copy of the software. Per the ToS and EULAs we are using the software legally. (IP is important to us) Just means time-sharing a single machine. Oh yes, and it can't be upgraded any further since at least one of the programs no longer is being supported and it's replacement doesn't work at all on any hardware we have. Windows 11 only with, currently, cutting edge hardware just to do a simple layout. The older software we use runs on Windows Vista through 10, or Mac OS 10.11.5 though 10.11.9. We use the Mac version on 10.11.9 and have that machine imaged and duplicated in storage in case of hardware failure. Just more cost, but cheaper than buying the subscription-only newer version and having to replace hardware every 2-3 years because they say we have to.
- Sixth is loss of Advertising revenue. This is the one we all are debating in this thread. The local stores are now running their own online advertising, and really upsetting the local people (we get calls daily). for example the local supermarket stopped all print advertising back in March. They went to digital only delivery through their own (horrendous) app. We lost over 100 subscribers (according to their statements at cancellation) for that one alone. This is the big one. Advertising is where a paper makes its operating costs. Without decent advertising the paper has to cut something. We cut non-reporter staff at first, then pages, and now have had to cut reporters (happily through attrition). We have had to expand into digital marketing and are learning fast about the different platforms and their ins, outs, and quirks. None are great but they all have a place.
- Seventh, and the last major issue is Postage. We deliver through the USPS (cheaper than paper route delivery people) and they keep increasing the costs to us, now twice a year. On July 7th, 2025 that overall price for our daily deliver went up $65 per day. That is after going up nearly $100 in January, $75 last July, and nearly $80 in January 2024. On top of that delivery times have gotten longer. We deliver DIRECTLY to the USPS offices in our area for local distribution and sometimes our customers don't get it until the following day, Those that are out of our area are seeing 2 to 3 days to get a daily paper. One person across the country from us has told us they are seeing a 4 day delay on getting their paper. We do NOT get any sort of credit or refund for missed delivery and end up have to spend MORE sending a paper, first class, to the customer, and extending their subscription by a day or two to keep them from cancelling.
It boils down to, of you want local news, then you need to get the local stores, even those owned by some big corporation, to advertise locally. Without that the paper has to cut something. First it will be staff, then pages, then quality. We had a copy editor. They retired, and now we let the word processors check the spelling and grammar. They do so poorly. Similar can be said for the modern LLM systems (they are NOT AI). They are not ready for main stream.