Mea culpa: correcting an error in fact

In an earlier post about changes in newspaper behaviors brought about by economics, I misstated the ownership of the Fort Worth Star Telegram. The newspaper is owned by the McClatchy Co., not Gannett. I thank the anonymous commenter who brought this to my attention.

How to make money in the news biz and screw the public, too

You run a media corporation. Your bottom line is getting smacked by softening ad revenues. Your stockholders scream: “Keep that stock price up.” You want your newspaper division to continue to pull its 20 percent profit margin to keep those damn institutional investors happy. Otherwise they’ll threaten you with a Knight Ridder knockout and break up your mega-media company.

But it’s harder than ever to keep up that ungodly profit margin, ’cause revenues are goin’ down and expenses are goin’ up. Fat profits on flat revenues ain’t gonna keep your newspaper division alive much longer.

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