Newspapers closing, news deserts growing for beleaguered news industry

[Midwestern Democrat]

9. Advertising always provided the bulk of newspaper/magazine revenue - while making people pay for newspapers/magazines

covered some of the costs, it actually served a more important function - it provided proof to the advertisers of the number of readers - the advertisers knew that if people were paying for it, they were reading it. I suppose in the early days of the internet there had been a false hope that advertising revenue on the internet would be comparable to that historically enjoyed by print media, but it wasn't even close - a glossy cigarette ad on the back cover of Newsweek brought in far more revenue than an internet pop up ad.