You don’t have to be much of a student of the business world to see that the newspaper business is tough. Here in Saskatchewan, for example, the papers aren’t even printed in the province.
But this is a universal story as consumers of news move away from traditional ink-on-paper. Even though the industry is declining, StatsCan still tracks its performance across the country, issuing a report every two years.
They’ve just released 2024 data showing overall revenue fell by 18-percent since 2022. The federal agency also observed the pace of decline is accelerating.
Advertising is the largest revenue generator for the industry and it fell even faster, dropped more than 25-percent in the two-year period with both print and digital revenues retracting.
About the only good news for these publishers is that subscriptions to papers – notably local or specialty products were rising or held their own as print publications transitioned to electronic formats. Diversification into areas such as parcel delivery was also growing in the face of falling revenues for flyers and custom printing.
