Herald Tribune cont... 6-17-11

As I mentioned in the last post, I placed an ad in the fitness section of the Sarasota Herald Tribune and it was a dud. Natually, I then felt a need to do some basic research. First, I wanted to know if anyone was actually reading the paper. I checked circulation figures for 2007. The Herald Tribune, circulation wise, was one of the top 100 newspapers in the country. It had a daily circulation of 118,000. That seemed fairly healthy to me. Four years later, in 2011, the paper's circulation has fallen off a bit. It is down to 83,000! OUCH! That is a 30% drop in 4 years. I think it is safe to say that this is not going to end well. I know what you are thinking...how did my ad rep explain this HUGE rate increase to me...despite the big drop in circulation? It was simple. He said that the advertisers on the weekend were already paying these high rates, and the paper wanted to bring my rate "more into line" with the weekend rates! I asked him if it would have been just as easy to lower the rates of the weekend advertisers, especially given the precipitous drop in readership. He replied the paper had not elected to go that way. I would like to reveal that I read the Herald Tribune on a regular basis and think it is, for the most part, well written and insightful. Unfortunately, like a growing contingent of people, I only read the online version. Next...the balance