Is the New York Times a model?

Margaret Sullivan is public editor of the New York Times. In the January 19 issue of the famous newspaper she stresse the major problems  of a daily in 2013. "A milestone behind, a mountain ahead" as she says.

The milestone is the fact that in 2012, for the first time, the circulation revenue, including the digital edition, surpassed advertising revenue. Its a landmark if one considers that until very recently, advertising contributed to 80% of newspapers income.

And yet, the Times, like every other daily gets still most of its money from the print. As advertising in the print edition fell by 11% last year, it is obvious that the proud newspaper is far from reaching a safe balance able to finance its newsroom with its 1100 journalists. That is the mountain ahead. One solution is to cut the staff and the executives of the Times are buying out some journalists but what of the investigative power that attract print and digital subscribers? it can only work with women and men both competent and highly motivated. For obvious reasons, Margaret Sullivan is worried.

The annual inquiry of la Croix on the opinion of the French on the media is not very comforting either. It is true that only 35% of the public trusts Internet against 54% for the radio and 49% for the press. However, 27% go to internet for getting the last news against 24% for the newspapers and 69% for television. The audiovisual media cope well; the print media suffer.