How much would a newspaper cost if it had no ads?

I worked for a small daily at one point and I remember that the circulation revenue to advertising revenue ratio was fairly low (1:7, 1:10, something like that.). Which would mean that a $1 newspaper would cost $7 – $10 to make up the ad revenue. I imagine the numbers for a larger newspaper are similar, but the subscription price is higher.

The NYT probably has to post its Circulation and Advertising Revenue somewhere, but the problem is that they won’t break that out by print vs. Online, but you should be able to use the 10% rule (Online advertising revenue = 10% of of print revenue [and print readership = 10% of Online Readership]).

A daily newspaper—nay—any newspaper would not exist if it didn’t have ad revenue. My totally uneducated guess is that a newspaper would cost about $20 per copy with no ads.

@Sueanne_Tremendous You may be right. The cost of production, I’m sure has gone way up since my experience, but the cost of the subscription has not gone up proportionally. Advertising has to make up the difference.