LA Times is cutting jobs . Other newspapers in the US and across the world are probably, too, as the world goes into a recession as Warren Buffet predicted months ago.
With world economy in tailspin, cost cutting measures are the next logical step to be taken, even by newspapers. And why not?
As information sources explode, led by the Internet, it will be pretty tough for the common man in the street to digest all there is in a 62 pages newspaper in what's left of his 24-allocated hours daily - tougher if he was subscribed to broadsheets than tabloids.
And as advertising budget gets cut, higher copy-to-ad ratio will mean more stuff to fill pages - meaning increased workload and staffing for the publisher and more stuff for the reader to digest.
With the shrinking purchasing power, any consumer with access to television, radio and, at work, the internet, newspapers will but come last in the food chain of one's information diet. You simply don't have the time to read everything and even if you did, someone will outread you anyway when the midnight newsreel hits the tube.
Out of this, if newsprint costs can still be absorbed, the free paper models will likely to come up tops. Very unlikely its circulation will drop although justifying the actual readership figures will be tough - if not impossible - if not audited creditably.
In Malaysia, where one paper has successfully increased its prices without highly tangible loss in revenue the past 12 months, rising newsprint and other costs that have begun biting into its profits.
With the recent fuel price hike, costs will be a favourite topic for discussion in management meetings - not so much as editorial content. Whether this will result in cost-cutting measures such as lay-offs, as its overseas counterparts have undertaken, will depend on how much shareholders' reserves it has built up over the years and how well hedged is its newsprint stock.
Word on the ground has it that many vernacular broadsheets have also mulled size reduction - from broadsheet to tabloids - something many would have frowned and gone near so much as a thought a decade ago. How many would fold up will be anyone's guess.
The only saviour for the newspaper, where I am watching from, is to jump into cyberspace. This will be extremely easy for established names and those who were on the bandwagon decades ago. For the new kid in the block, just trying to climb out of search engines' sandbox will be a tough one.
Of course, with cost being the main consideration, online policies that are clearly thought out and intelligently laid out will go a long way to hedge the newspaper against future woes - be it costs or staffing or technology.
