Amid news that print-copy circulation of her paper fell another 11 percent — much faster than the national decline — to just under 188K per weekday, Uptown paper of record publisher Ann Caulkins confirmed that she is powerless to address modern market realities.
“We’re gaining readership,” said Observer publisher Ann Caulkins. “We know people who don’t read us in print are reading us online. We have more readership than we’ve ever had in the history of the Charlotte Observer.”
Caulkins said that part of the circulation decrease was because unprofitable delivery routes were dropped in outlying areas and newsstand prices were raised in some distant circulation zones.
So what’s the 21st century plan to get revenue from all those online eyeballs? Well, in the 19th century you would throw ads at them and/or sell them subscriptions. And that is Ann’s plan as well.
Nothing remotely forward-looking, nothing to decouple content from “pages” and “ads” — just throw a pay wall up and hope the advertisers want to pay twice to get in — and don’t mind having no idea if they connect with eye-balls actually interested in their product.
I really cannot believe Ann Caulkins still has a job. Imagine there are plenty of folks down at Tryon Street who read that quote and thought the same thing.
Confusion, will be their epitaph.
