About that dormant dish on your roof--Maybe I’m not the only one who gave up satellite (or cable) service for the likes of streaming via Apple TV, Netflix and YouTube. I get my news via radio and local digital broadcast stations. In the second quarter of this year, the pay-TV industry lost about 400,000 subscribers. I suspect they’d lose even more were it not for Dexter.
Is it the economy, or is it the tablets? Magazine sales in the United States fell almost 10 percent in the first half of this year. Subscriptions haven’t changed much; it’s newsstand sales that are down. I admit that even I have reached the point where I’d as soon read periodicals and books on my iPad as on paper, and, much as I enjoy seeing books line my shelf, the iPad makes lugging them irresistibly convenient. Maybe that’s why sales of the Kindle edition of my new book are keeping pace with hard-copy sales so far.
Not everyone’s sales are falling: Macy’s reports a 16-ish percent net income increase for its second quarter. They credit their commitment to tailoring merchandise to local markets. They may be mistaking correlation for causation, and in any event that’s not exactly a unique strategy, but either way, good for Macy’s. Let’s hope they’re a leading indicator.
—Steve Cuno