Latest ABC Figures Show Continued Decline in Newspaper Readership

The latest Audit Bureau of Circulation reports continuing declines virtually across the board in the number of daily newspaper readers. Notable among the losers in the top 20 dailies is The Washington Post with a 4.1 percent drop. Other big losers include The Boston Globe at 8.25 percent and The San Francisco Chronicle at a whopping 16.58 percent.

Go here for Editor & Publisher's full report.

But it's not just the readership that is leaving the mainstream dailies, it is the advertising dollars that follow circulation. Did you know Google will sell more advertising this year than any daily newspaper or new network? Check this out from U.S. News & World Report's new report on "The New Media Elites:"

"And that's big bucks. Internet advertising is up by 26 percent this year to $14.7 billion (out of total advertising of $278 billion) and is expected to top $26 billion by 2010, according to research by Forrester Research.
"Google alone sold $6.1 billion in ads this year, double that of last year and more than any newspaper chain, magazine group, or television network. By 2006, its ad revenues are projected to top $9 billion, which would put it fourth among American media companies in total ad sales and ahead of such giants as NBC, Universal, and Time Warner."

We are witnessing the death of the dinosaurs of the mainstream media and their replacement with Internet-based citizen journalism.

Cross-posted at Tapscott's Copy Desk.