• J-School: Educating Independent Journalists, Thursday, August 21, 2008 9:46 AM

Profits at Philadelphia's two metro newspapers got fatter in the 1990s, while the papers ignored impending problems from the Internet, according to an analysis of financial data by the J-School blog.

Chris Anderson writes that under the ownership of Knight-Ridder, profit margins were between 9% in 1995 and the low 20%'s in the early 2000s, even while circulation and staff were dropping and the Web loomed on the horizon.

The papers failed to invest in an Internet future that many knew was coming, he writes. "They were so focused on the quarterly bottom line, they failed to realize that the long-term bottom line was where they were really at risk. [By 2008], their choice wouldn't be between 9% and 29% profits, but between profits and no profits at all."

Read the whole story at J-School: Educating Independent Journalists »