
Printing The NYT Costs Twice As Much As Sending Every Subscriber A Free Kindle - Flemlord
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/printing-the-nyt-costs-twice-as-much-as-sending-every-subscriber-a-free-kindle
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mlinsey
Note that this article compares the costs of printing _all_ copies of the New
York Times to sending only _subscribers_ free Kindles.

I started this post expecting to explain how this made the NYT's printing
costs sound a bit more reasonable. Then I found that according to Wikipedia,
which cites a 2007 release by the paper itself, the daily circulation of the
New York Times is 1,000,665 Daily and 1,438,585 on Sundays. I am honestly
quite surprised that the number of papers sold at newsstands and vending
machines is therefore under 200K on weekdays. Using these figures and building
off of SAI's estimates, the cost of printing copies just for subscribers is
probably about $503 million, or still enough for just under 1.7 kindles per
subscriber.

Note also that neither bandwidth costs nor the costs of delivering papers is
counted. I presume factoring this in would make the print newspaper look even
worse.

~~~
Kaizyn
This doesn't account for the fact that most copies of the NYT would likely be
read by more than one person. The ad rates take these extra readers into
account. How many people do you know who would gladly let others read the news
off of their $400 Kindle?

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teuobk
I think this ignores the fact that the reason some people (like me)
buys/subscribes to a paper is because it's... printed on paper. I can get all
of the information with my computer or my iPhone, but I enjoy the interaction
with actual paper. I wouldn't want to read it on a Kindle.

For the record, I'd be willing to pay substantially more than I currently am
for that privilege, but the newspapers don't seem willing to significantly
raise their prices.

~~~
dattaway
The advantage of the newspaper at work is that we pass it around the break
room all day. It gets annotated with interesting notes and drawings by
everyone. That one single newspaper gets read by perhaps 50 people.

~~~
gravitycop
_The advantage of the newspaper at work is that [...] It gets annotated with
interesting notes and drawings by everyone._

I thought that was what a wiki was for. Once your newspaper for a given day is
annotated, how do you search it in the future?
<http://images.google.com/images?q=newspaper+stacks> How would one even store
something like that? <http://www.georgeweber.net/radio-curtis_office.jpg>

[http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/weblog/wp-
content/uploads/200...](http://www.bradfitzpatrick.com/weblog/wp-
content/uploads/2008/09/messy-desk-illustration.jpg)

~~~
akd
> I thought that was what a wiki was for. Once your newspaper for a given day
> is annotated, how do you search it in the future?

You don't. The asymptotic approach of storage costs to 0 has made some people
believe that everything is worth saving.

~~~
gravitycop
_The asymptotic approach of storage costs to 0 has made some people believe
that everything is worth saving._

Like Fred Wilson. [http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/confessions-of-a-pack-rat-
ak...](http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/confessions-of-a-pack-rat-aka-my-
document-retention-policy.html)

 _Confessions Of A Pack Rat (aka My Document Retention Policy)_

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bjplink
I have some experience in the printing industry and this doesn't come as much
of a surprise to me. Printing is a hugely difficult business to turn a profit
with. The harsh reality is that the cost of doing business is so high that
profits are usually depressing by comparison.

~~~
Shamiq
It'd be amazing if we could see an income statement with a full breakdown of
costs of goods sold, operating expenses, etc. -- itemized and all!

~~~
bjplink
I spent several years working for a very small commercial printer and was in
charge of the billing/inventory system there. Eventually, since I was tracking
the raw materials, I was put in charge of ordering paper.

We only three mid-sized printing presses and I was dropping just under six
figures every month on paper alone. Of course, we weren't printing on the kind
of paper you get with the NYT. This was higher quality stuff but you can get
an idea of the costs involved.

