The Christian Science Monitor will stop printing its daily edition next year. According to Audit Bureau of Circulations numbers the Paper currently has a daily print circulation of 56,083.
The move follows years of losses at the non-profit newspaper, which is subsidized by the Church of Christ, Scientist. The Monitor expects to lose $18.9 million in the year ending April 30. Its annual budget is $34 million, Editor John Yemma said in an interview.
Discussion
By Michael Josefowicz on Oct 29, 2008
I think there is another way to read this story. The business model might be read for free, pay for print. It's not about print vs web. It's about print + web. Not being at the "center of it" does not mean Print doesn't exist.
Some selections from the article follow:
``We hope to make it up,'' Yemma said. ``The next century's model has to be one where print is not at the center of it.'
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The Christian Science Monitor won seven Pulitzer Prizes and continues to have writers in 11 countries, including Russia, China, France, the U.K., Kenya, Mexico, Israel and India, the Web site said.
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Monitor readers will be offered a weekly printed publication and daily e-mail edition, the newspaper said today on its Web site.
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The Boston-based publication has lost subscribers for almost 40 years, according to the Web site.
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The newspaper's Web site attracts 1.5 million users each month, Yemma said. The Monitor can boost its online audience if it devotes the staff to the site instead of print, he added.
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Gordon Borrell, president of ad-consulting firm Borrell Associates in Williamsburg, Virginia, questioned whether Web advertising will be enough to support quality journalism.
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It will take several years for profitable Web newspapers to emerge, said Ken Doctor, a newspaper analyst at consulting firm Outsell Inc. in Burlingame, California, and a former executive with Knight Ridder Inc.
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``It's the way the world will be in 2015,'' Doctor said. In the meantime, even online publications such as Politico.com, which has become one of the leading sources of campaign news this year, gets much of its revenue from a print edition distributed around Washington, he said.
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By Michael Josefowicz on Oct 29, 2008
Sorry, but there is no edit feature on posts..so
Suppose it turns out that the best way to monetize websites is to publish Print editions?
Consider the number of websites that are searching for ways to monetize their hits. Once we stop the exclusive focus on advertising, new opportunities can emerge.