The Infinite Dial

Wired News reports today that the number of monthly visitors to websites for U.S. newspapers rose by almost a third in the first half of 2006. Yes, the dead tree part of their business has fallen--substantially in some cases--but the get-our-brand-and-advertising-in-front-of-eyeballs part seems to be doing just fine. So while the newspaper itself may be in its decline, the "newspaper business" seems to be doing pretty good.

One of the most interesting components of this rise in online newspaper readership is a significant increase in 18-34 year-old readers. There is an encouraging lesson for radio here--though a market may only be able to naturally support one newspaper and a couple of dozen radio signals, there is no FCC spectrum to be bought on the web--radio stations have just as much right to it as anyone else, whether they use it to stream their station or just connect local eyeballs to local advertisers, which remains radio's strength. Winning in that business seems like a pretty good growth investment to me.