Two seemingly unrelated stories in today’s news actually do carry a thread in common. The first is that the New York Times Company, parent of the newspaper, has sharply cut its dividends as a result of a drop in earnings. The other reports a decline in DVD sales ranging from 4% to 22% depending on how much data the number-crunchers throw into their calculations.

In both news items combined, the word “download” appears just once, but anyone under the age of 25 knows that that’s the key to understanding both stories. The “Gray Lady”, as the Times is appropriately called, has been hammered by a loss of advertising and circulation revenue, and though some of it can be attributable to recent economic upheavals, in fact the trend down can be laid at the feet of readers turning to the Internet for their news. Though many of them are getting it from the Times‘s online service nytimes.com, online advertising is not by any means on a par with ads printed on paper. In any case print circulation for both weekdays and weekends is down around 4% for the newspaper industry in general, and there’s no sign of a reversal. I report all this with great sorrow. No one likes to see the Gray Lady down.

Though there are other factors pulling DVD sales down, Brooks Barnes’ analysis in the New York Times alleges, ” There are signs that digital downloads are cutting into sales.” He offers no elaboration, but for a growing population of clickers no elaboration is necessary. In fact for them it’s a big Duh.

RC