When foreclosure ads exceed real estate ads

Elk Grove Citizen foreclosure notices exceed real estate for sale ads


In the Wednesday, July 9 edition of the Elk Grove Citizen there was something few people probably noticed - the number of advertising pages for trustees sales, the foreclosure legal advertisements tucked in the back of the classified section exceeded the real estate for sale ads.

In fact, the foreclosure ads were pretty close to equaling the display ads in this particular edition of The Citizen.

So just what does this mean?

In the very short run, the foreclosure crisis has been a revenue boom for The Citizen (or at least a replacement for the lost real estate glamour shot festooned ads which are crucial to just about every community newspaper in the state.) As required by California law, every trustees (foreclosure) sales must be published three times in an adjudicated newspaper of general circulation in the area where the foreclosure is taking place.

For all foreclosed properties in Elk Grove, that newspaper means The Citizen.

In the long-run though, it indicates trouble make be afoot for publications like The Citizen, which have had some insulation from the woes that have befallen many publications. Just look at what has happened to the likes of McClathy.

Aside from rapidly changing demographics, the general migration of advertising from print publications to the Internet, the loss of revenue from primary sources like real estate ads and general display ads ultimately leads to a cut in news reporting.

The fewer paid ads mean fewer pages available for news. Fewer news pages means less revenue which leads to few reporters which leads to less news reporting which leads to a newspaper devoid of any meaningful copy which leads to less circulation which leads to irrelevance. When that happens, the newspaper become nothing more than rag to publish legal ads which can be done with far smaller staff devoid of a news room.

Hopefully that fate won't happen to The Citizen.