Newspapers slow to embrace the web as a tool

Duluth News Tribune business reporter Peter Passi has an interesting story this morning about how newspaper circulation is declining, but the number of readers reading the paper on the Internet is increasing.

He quotes a former newspaper executive as saying that the dropping of printed stock listings, but the use of providing those stock listings on a newspaper Web site, is a way that newspapers can use the Internet to maintain readers.

Passi wrote, “Jerry Ceppos, former vice president for news at Knight Ridder Inc. and editor of the San Jose Mercury News, said newspapers for the most part have been slow to use the Internet as a tool.

“‘A great example of that is how long it has taken newspapers to trim back or eliminate their stock listings,’ he said. ‘I think that’s a sign of how slow we are to change.’

“Ceppos said newspapers ought to devote more resources to the Web, recognizing it as a potential ‘savior.'”

Read more here.