How do you think magazines and newspapers will deal with this recession?

i think in general, we are going to see a thinning-out of the market. A lot of magazines and papers will go under, or all-online. Really – Wired should just be online. I’ve read it since the 90s, but i’d be a bigger fan of an online edition. Certain things, like fashion magazines, will thin out, since women (and men) want glossy pictures they can keep, in order to emulate, discuss with friends, etc.

a lot of the “niche” stuff will disappear. “Sweater Dogs Monthly” and “Husky Southern Bride Review” and some of those sorts of things will go away.

I also think a lot of midsize town newspapers will go away. Really small towns still rely on the newspaper (although, did you hear that thing on NPR’s ‘This American Life’ about the radio classified show in the midwest somewhere?), but suburban towns don’t. People either don’t read them, or use the nearest big city papeer (i.e. – NYT, LA Times, etc.)

and let’s not forget about USA Today.

I was going to joke about Playboy being the only print publication to survive, then I did a little research. Looks like Hefner is phasing out his print publication and is going to digitize Playboy.

If he can’t make it in print, who can?

One magazine I’ve been subscribing to has already announced they will no longer have 9 issues each year, but 6, and that they will roll my subscription in with the next lot so that current subscribers wouldn’t be short-changed.

Maybe a lot of other mags will adopt similar strategies.

I think newspapers have been on the decline since the Internet, and have had to invest in online presence. I can see a huge shift to internet presence by all players. I’ve already noticed in the want ads an increase in demand for web designers and developers…seems to happen when the markets go down. comments?

My dad has been in the newspaper industry since he was 15, and I can tell you that newspapers, at least in print, are heading downward and will never go back up. Everything is going online, where there is more information, usually free. And thanks to things like craigslist, they’re getting less money from classifieds. Eventually I think newspapers will be obsolete, and it doesn’t have really anything to do with the recession. As for magazines, they definitely won’t be as full as they usually are until the economy swings back up again. Unlike newspapers, I think magazines are here to stay, unless they are eventually put online as well.

You could put porn in the middle.

Not sure how well that would work asmonet, considering that not even a magazine chock full of porn is surviving! And it’s not like there’s a lack of free porn available.

My husband’s daily laid off 78 people in the newsroom in 2008. The parent company (one of the industry’s largest) has gone into bankruptcy. He has been told his job might last 90 more days.

The Seattle PI is going under.

All media will feel the overall pinch.

@Marina, does your husband by any chance work for a Gannett newspaper? They’ve been slowly tanking for years; luckily my dad now works for a non-Gannett paper and his job is pretty safe, at least for now.

No, thank goodness. Gannett has a reputation for paying low salaries.

I used to work for Gannett. It’s low paying if you are a minion too As I was. Good thing I quit before this all is happening.

I think they are toast in the ever growing depression. You can only do so much for so long.
Most of them should be purged, they were simply profiteering on a good economy.