It was perhaps inevitable, but the first newspaper has made the decision to abandon print and go “online only.” The Cincinnati Post, a 126 year-old paper owned by E.W. Scripps, published its final edition on Dec. 31 at the end of a Joint Operating Agreement with Gannett, which owns The Cincinnati Enquirer, the dominant paper in town. Henceforth, it will publish KYPost.com. (Note to geography majors: Cincinnati is in Ohio but abuts Kentucky.)
For KYPost.com, It is a good idea to take advantage of existing brands and resources, possibly retaining cars.com. In particular, it can feed off of a promotional tie with WCPO-TV, which is Scripps’ metro station. But its prospects, long term, probably don’t approach what a “real” newspaper brings to the table. While online versions of newspapers claim margins in 50 percent range, far higher than 18-21 percent margins of many newspapers, most of the costs of online personnel and sales aren’t included in the tally (technology usually is).
Its revenues are also relatively small. Just 7-8 percent of today’s newspaper business typically comes from online.
Scripps isn’t the only company to have to decide whether to go online only at the end of a Joint Operating Agreement. A similar situation was faced last summer by Hearst’s The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.