STRICTLY BUSINESS: NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY IS ALIVE AND WELL

The newspaper industry is alive and well.

Despite network TV, cable TV, magazines and increased activity on new online computer programs, newspapers are still thriving nationwide.

Some impressive, and optimistic, statistics were revealed during the annual meeting of the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) national convention at New Orleans earlier this year.

The NAA is made up of 1,500 papers representing more than 85 percent of the nation's total newspaper circulation. The consensus from the annual meeting is that newspapers are holding their own against some stiff competition.

Look at the statistics:

-- Total advertising revenue of $34.2 billion, up 7.5 percent from 1993, and the largest revenue jump in eight years.

-- Newspapers' advertising revenue make up a 23-percent share of the advertising dollars spent in the United States and is the largest slice earned by any medium, including television.

-- Readership remains strong, with 132 million Americans reading a Sunday newspaper every week. Sixty-one percent of American adults read a daily newspaper on an average weekday. By contrast, on an average evening, only a combined 41 million viewers are shared by the three major network news shows.

1,555 newspapers, 60 million circulation

-- A total of 1,555 daily newspapers have more than 60 million circulation. The number of dailies is down 90 from the 1,640 total of 1987.

But, rumors of the death of the newspaper industry are exaggerated, says John Morton, a newspaper analyst and columnist in Washington, who says the newspaper business is still huge, and still very profitable. The death of newspapers has been predicted many times, but it's never happened."

Today, newspapers compete with all sorts of media. Some of them, like online computer services, were unheard of two decades ago. Cable TV has become popular during the past quarter-century.

"Newspapering-as-usual" is changing. Newspapers today are taking a sharper look at their makeup, utilizing color photographs and graphics.

The Newspaper in Education (NIE) program, established by the NAA and conducted by individual newspapers, are used in school classrooms as learning tools and to develop lifetime reading habits by students.

The NIE program is conducted at more than 68,000 schools nationwide.

The Southeast Missourian is one of those involved heavily in the NIE program.

9,000 students in area NIE program

During the first year of the program, in 1991, about 2,500 students received the newspapers in their classrooms. More than 9,000 students are expected to be involved in the program this year.

The Missourian absorbs about half of the $150,000 annual retail cost of the program. A number of community supporters provide the other half of the funding.

The Southeast Missourian is part of the Rust Communications Network of Newspapers, the largest outstate daily and weekly newspaper group in Missouri, with more than 240,000 distribution in four states. The group includes six daily newspapers with a combined circulation of more than 126,000, and a dozen weeklies with more than 85,000 distributions.

Based on 2.3 readers per publication, that translates into more than a half-million (554,776) readers in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, Northeast Arkansas and Western Tennessee.

Some newspapers are taking advantage of computer online capabilities. About 60 newspapers are feeding their total daily contents, from news and features to classified ads, into computer text offerings. Thirty more newspapers plan to go online this year, and several hundred others are experimenting with limited forms of online service.

One issue that is not one of happiness for newspapers is the constant increase of newsprint costs during the past 18 months. Newsprint prices have increased as much as 90 percent during the past two years, and is expected to continue rising through 1996. Newsprint, which costs about $400 a metric ton is expected to increase to as much as $800 a metric ton.

But, even with higher newsprint costs and increasing competition from the electronic media, the future seems bright for America's newspapers. The market is still strong, and recent studies show a growing trend by younger people to read newspapers.

"Newspapers," said Morton, "are still a very cheap way to distribute information."

Some Missourian fast facts

Following are some interested statistics created by the Southeast Missourian newspaper:

-- Missourian carriers use about 4 million plastic bags and 1,500 pounds of rubber bands every year. Carriers throw about 1,715 tons of newsprint per year. A week's worth of Missourian newspapers weighs nearly 3 pounds.

-- The average issue of the Missourian contains about 100,000 words of news, or 14 times that presented during an average 30-minute television telecast.

-- Staff photographers will take as many as 1,500 pictures a month, or about 50 day, from which a few will be selected for publication.

-- Each roll of newsprint here is 7.5 miles long and weighs about 900 pounds. The Missourian uses about 100 rolls a week. During a year, the Missourian will print enough paper to circle the globe with newsprint 10 times.

-- The Missourian's web offset press can print 20,000 copies per hour at full speed, and can print 21 pages at one time. The Missourian uses 6,500 gallons of soybean-based ink per year.

-- The Missourian runs more than 187,000 classified ads per year.

-- A computerized mail room allows the Missourian to insert six separate news and advertising sections together at the rate of about 150 papers a minute.