The economics of newspapers

Brother Weinberger writes,

“Dan: The real threat to traditional journalism isn’t blogging. It’s eBay, the largest classified ads publisher.”

Anyway, he is absolutely right. Classified advertising accounts for 50 percent of the profits of newspapers, and eBay is taking that franchise away. Without classifieds, newspapers are not a business. They are charity cases.

From the ever-perceptive Arnold Kling.