BH Media, the newspaper group which owns the Press of Atlantic City and AC Weekly, has completed another round of job cuts.
Last year, they cut 289 jobs. Last week, BH Media laid off 148 more, 16 of them here in South Jersey. That’s 6% of its workforce.
Even the promising digital growth at the Press of AC couldn’t offset print revenue losses. This forced the publication to dramatically scale back the number of pages they print. News coverage has always been noticeably thin, but now it’s much worse, say long time readers of the paper.
Declining advertising revenue, reduced readership of print products, and the growth of online news sources like ACprimetime.com and DownbeachBUZZ contributed to this negative trend affecting both print and broadcast outlets.
Newspaper and print publications were not the only media that experienced cutbacks. Local Atlantic City area ‘News & Talk Radio’ stations have also endured a steady loss of listeners, due in part to the growth of online listening via downloadable podcasts and audio streams.
News/Talk radio, once a stable mainstay on the dial, has seen it’s ad & listener support virtually cut in half, as smart-phones and desktop computers have become the new ‘radio’ for most.
Independent media, most notably the King Arthur Show on WIBG 1020am, has seen an uptick in both listeners and ad revenues.