Print newspapers to survive a decade, Sun-Times' Tyree says
Printed newspapers will probably survive as much as a decade before being largely replaced by digital news, said James Tyree, who led the October buyout of the Chicago Sun-Times' publisher.
"Newspapers have got a good strong 10 years," Tyree, chief executive of investment firm Mesirow Financial Inc., said in an interview in Chicago last week. "By then you'll have to evolve into something else -- maybe five years evolve into something else -- or you'll just be out of business."
Sun-Times Media Holdings LLC, publisher of eight dailies in Illinois and Indiana, will have to wean itself from its printed newspapers by offering more original Internet content such as in-depth sports and regional political coverage, Tyree said. His purchase of the company ended seven months of bankruptcy.
U.S. publishers have cut jobs and sections, and sold assets to cope with declining advertising revenue. Last year, print ad sales plunged to their lowest since 1984 and digital advertising fell 12 percent, Newspaper Association of America data show.
"I am not planning on it being the bottom for advertising," Tyree, 52, said of this year. "Our plan was for a continued decline in advertising. If it ever levels off, I am going to be the happiest guy you've ever seen."
Tyree said he hopes to update the Sun-Times' Web site with more photos, color and stories of local interest, including regional business news such as real estate. The Chicago-based publisher hasn't been able to invest in the site in a long time, he said.
Sun-Times Bankruptcy
Sun-Times filed for bankruptcy protection in March 2009 with $801 million in debt. As part of negotiations to take over the publisher, Tyree and union workers agreed to new contracts that he said freed him to share more content among its newspapers including the Herald-News of Joliet, Illinois.
The Chicago Sun-Times's average weekday circulation declined 12 percent to 275,641 in the six months through September, compared with 11 percent industrywide, according to Audit Bureau of Circulations data.
In the coming months, Tyree said he'll evaluate the newspaper's subscription and newsstand price, noting that Tribune Co.'s Chicago Tribune, which costs $1, is 25 cents more expensive than the Sun-Times.
Sun-Times has no plans to charge readers to access content on its newspapers' Web sites, Tyree said.
"If we put up a pay wall on the newspaper, everybody would go to the Tribune so we can't do that," he said.