E-Readers, Transition Plans in DMN Future

Jim Moroney III of The Dallas Morning News sees the print paper surviving at least until 2020, in part because it’s successfully raised the price of home delivery. In a talk to the Dallas Assembly today, the DMN publisher and CEO said classified and display ads have plummeted, moving to online venues, so the paper’s trying other things, like the subscription increase, to compensate for the lost dough. Next month, he said, it will make “free e-readers” available to subscribers. He expects the Obama Justice Department to ease antitrust restrictions soon on newspapers battling online sites that co-opt their work. And he doesn’t expect the DMN Web site alone to keep the operation robust. “We have a newsroom with 325 people–a $37 million annual investment–and we don’t make $30 million a year off digital ads,” Moroney said. “So … we’ll make the transition [to a sustainable model], but it won’t be just to dallasnews.com.”