The San Francisco Chronicle made a similar announcement earlier this year, trying to turn it into a marketing hook with a new look too. Readers were unimpressed (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/comments/view?f=/c/a/2...) and as of last week they have been reverting to the old design for some sections. It doesn't help that the Chronicle has one of the worst websites I know, which makes it a chore to follow a story that was on the front page of the dead tree version.
It's like saying it might be a bad idea for Google to spend 95 mil on servers and routers. It's what they need to run their business and print the papers. They can't just ignore it. Now with that said, the problem is in their business with the fact that they are in a business that NEEDS 95 mil to print content.
The difference being that google is planning on a certain growth in demand for data delivered over networks and routers - the newspaper is planning on a $95M increase in demand for words on dead trees!
Rupert Murdoch's News International (publishers of the Times [of London] and The Sun) did something similar last year. They opened a plant on the edge of London costing about $300mm to replace their Wapping printworks.
But, but but... One of my clients makes multi-million dollar printing presses. If people stopped buying them, then that client would lose money, and they wouldn't be able to keep paying me money, and then I would have to eat more ramen, and not just because I want to.
In all seriousness, those huge printing presses are not things that are purchased on a whim. They are generally many years in the making, and an economic slowdown is unlikely to to alter the purchasing decision. I actually do have a client that builds multi-million dollar printing presses. They sell 6 per year on average. They have not seen a slowdown in business.
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[ 5.9 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadhttp://www.google.com/finance/getchart?q=SSP&x=NYSE&...
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=40595
In all seriousness, those huge printing presses are not things that are purchased on a whim. They are generally many years in the making, and an economic slowdown is unlikely to to alter the purchasing decision. I actually do have a client that builds multi-million dollar printing presses. They sell 6 per year on average. They have not seen a slowdown in business.