Panic in the Newspaper Biz

Posted on Mar. 23, 2006

By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas—I don’t so much mind that newspapers are dying—it’s watching them commit suicide that pisses me off.

Let’s use this as a handy exercise in journalism. What is the unexamined assumption here? That the newspaper business is dying. Is it? In 2005, publicly traded U.S. newspaper publishers reported operating profit margins of 19.2%, down from 21% in 2004, according to The Wall Street Journal. That ain’t chopped liver—it’s more than double the average operating profit margin of the Fortune 500.