There was some fretting a while back about the fate of newspapers after the internet invasion. Don't worry. Judging by today's Midland Reporter-Telegram, they're doing OK.
Newspapers are basically conduits for advertising, and I've long thought they should give newspapers to the customers for free. Still waiting on that one. In any event, the Midland Reporter-Telegram for today, Thanksgiving day, November 22, 2012, is loaded with the advertising that butters their bread.
The newspaper that hit my driveway this morning weighed in at around 3.6 pounds -- see photos of scales. Strip out the advertising supplements and there's not enough left to tip the big scales. However, the trusty postal scales measure the newspaper portion at 4.5 ounces. Plugging this into a spreadsheet tells us that the newspaper portion comes to a little less than 8% of the total. Put another way, the advertising outweighs the news 12 times.
The ad volume was substantially more then normal due to the holiday sales drive. But still, that must be a lot of advertising revenue coming into the MRT coffers this month. It will be a Merry Christmas in that office.
P.S. Zoom in on those Pitney Bowes postal scales and get a load of that 15 cent first class rate. According to this chart that was the rate between '78 and '81. Hmm, I wonder if weights have inflated, too. That could account for human weight gain. An ounce 30 years ago probably measures in at two or three ounces today.
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