News Industry Analyst Looks at Challenges Facing The Oregonian's New Editor

Ken Doctor says the paper's Sunday paid print circulation has dropped below 200,000

By AARON MESH

Readers of The Oregonian got a piece of good news this week: The state's largest newspaper has hired much-decorated and widely respected investigative editor Mark Katches as its new top editor.

That announcement follows stark changes by the state's largest newspaper in its move to the web: Its New York-based owners, Advance Publications, conducted widespread layoffs last summer, and instituted online quotas and incentive pay this spring.

So what kind of newsroom is Katches inheriting?

Ken Doctor, a longtime analyst of the news industry and a onetime editor and publisher in Oregon, today takes a closer look at the state of The Oregonian in a column for Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab.

Among his findings: Doctor says the move to an online-first model has cost The Oregonian a steep drop in print circulation—and not only on the weekdays it no longer offers home delivery.

He says the paper's flagship Sunday edition has dropped below 200,000 paid circulation—a loss of more than half since 1997. 

Doctor writes:

But Doctor also sees opportunities for Katches to innovate:

Oregonian publisher N. Christian Anderson III has not responded to WW's request for comment on Doctor's story.

Read Doctor's full analysis at Nieman Journalism Labs.

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