Newspapers Weigh Cutting Stock Pages

The changes reflect the shift in readers' habits that is forcing newspaper publishers to reconsider their traditional strategies. Readers are paying less attention to where they get their news from the major media companies -- online or in print -- and are even showing more willingness to pay for some Internet content, analysts said.

Competition that used to exist between newsroom and Web site is being reframed as cooperation. Journalists on the print-and-ink side are no longer just newspaper people; they often file their stories to Web sites and appear on television and radio.

"If you used to think of yourself as a newspaper person, now you have to think of yourself as a newsperson whose work goes out over a variety of channels," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. "We're moving away from a business model that's been a century in developing, and there are a lot of unknowns."

For publishers struggling to maintain advertising as print circulation shrinks, fast-growing Internet ad sales represent new hope. In 2005, ad revenue on newspaper Web sites rose 30 percent to $2.1 billion, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

James Peters, an equity analyst with Standard & Poor's in New York, predicted that Web site ad sales will increase 25 percent in 2006.

But even with those gains, the vast majority of newspaper companies' advertising revenue still comes from print operations.

Publishers hope to supplement online revenue by charging for some Web site content. The experiments so far have had mixed results. Some community papers have tried and backed off. The New York Times introduced premium content on its Web site last year and attracted 410,000 subscribers. About 62 percent receive the added content free as part of a paid newspaper subscription; the other 38 percent pay $49.95 a year.

Dow Jones, which has led the way in online subscriptions by charging for the Wall Street Journal online, began selling subscriptions to the Barron's Web site in January. The site has attracted more than 45,000 paid subscribers. Most of the subscribers pay $20 a year to add Barron's to their Wall Street Journal online subscription; subscriptions for other readers range from $39 to $79 a year.

If readers are willing to pay for some or all content online, publishers will have an opportunity to develop a business model similar to the current one, based on both advertising and subscription sales.

Some analysts say trends in the music industry indicate consumers' growing willingness to pay for what was once free online. Though the music-sharing site Napster paved the way for consumers to get music free, most online music lovers now accept fees for downloading their favorite tunes.

"When newspapers gave you the print version free online, readers were unwilling to pay for it. Now there's a layering of content that makes people recognize that certain kinds of material is worth paying for," Rainie said. "Consumers' expectations are shifting. There's a tremendous amount of ferment sorting out what people will pay for and won't pay for, but it's not the presumption anymore that every piece of content under every set of circumstances should be free."