Media Outlook
Newspapers Saw the Worst and Best of Times in 2001
Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., The Washington Post
They suffered with other advertising-driven media as the economy slowed and September 11 took its added toll. While the estimated industry-wide 2 percent drop in retail advertising revenue affected all newspapers, large newspapers were hit far harder by the sharp decline in their largest category help-wanted classifieds and by a decline in their fastest growing category national advertising.
At the same time, the importance of newspapers to readers has never been more apparent. After the terrorist attacks, most...