The struggles of print media has given rise to the question as to how people consume information today.
Popular news outfit USA Today announced that it will be forcing 1,620 employees a week-long leave without pay some time from end of February to July to cut costs.
The company announced in February last year that no raises will be handed out. The pay halt will be extended for another 90 days.
USA Today cites declining sales figures and advertising revenues as the main reasons for the cost-cutting measures and it’s not like USA Today is a small time print outfit.
USA Today is the second-largest outfit by distribution and a drop of 17% from the previous year to a 1.9 million daily average is huge. Advertising revenue is also down 28%.
A good deal of print media’s revenue still rely on circulation. However, the split between online readers and actual newspaper readers is growing.
The business model for online publication, however, has not been able to replace the income generated through circulation sales.
Source: BusinessWeek
