Good News: Not All Newspapers Are Tanking

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Citing a Pew Research Center study released yesterday entitled Newspapers Turning Ideas into Dollars: Four Revenue Success Stories, the Columbia Journalism Review brightened the day for ink-stained wretches everywhere by reporting on four daily newspapers actually turning a profit.

The Naples (Fla.) Daily News [circ. 44,876], Santa Rosa (Calif.) Press Democrat [circ. 53,292], The (Salt Lake City) Deseret News [circ. 91,638] and The Columbia (Tenn.) Daily Herald [circ. 12,744] followed different paths to operating in the black, but all displayed "real leadership, ability to communicate that vision and commitment to editorial quality," Pew Associate Director Mark Jurkowitz told CJR.

Revenue grew the past two years at the Naples Daily News after its sales force was overhauled, while the Santa Rosa Press Democrat launched Media Lab, a digital agency providing online marketing services, the Pew study revealed. A half-dozen revenue-boosting ideas were rolled out by the Columbia Daily Herald, and the Deseret News owes its profitability to producing a national print edition, honing its editorial identity and creating a digital company, according to the Pew study.

The ever-sunny "TUOL" staff is delighted to report that not all the economic news concerning the newspaper industry is bleak--just most of it.