communications industry structure, including mass media, advertising, and telephone companies
Professor Williams, University of South Carolina, School of Library and Information Science, has compiled an excellent bibliographic guide to national-scope U.S. library statistics from 1829 to 1999. This thorough work documents an amazing amount of data available about libraries, which were and remain a key part of public information infrastructure. I used an early draft … Continue reading national-scope statistical sources on U.S. libraries
Coen’s estimates of total U.S. advertising expenditure from 1996 to 2006 are roughly comparable to estimates derived from Census data and IRS data. The Coen estimates are about 35% higher than estimates from Census data and about 8% lower than estimates from IRS data. The Census-based advertising estimates come from annual surveys of establishments’ revenues. … Continue reading alternate estimates of U.S. advertising expenditure
While now largely forgotten, rental libraries (commercial circulating libraries) have played a major role in book distribution in twentieth-century U.S. The Booklovers Library, a rental library that Seymour Eaton started in Philadelphia in 1900, rapidly established rental outlets in 50 cities and circulated millions of books per year. Eaton soon proposed placing 10,000 rental book … Continue reading circulation from rental and public libraries
Traditional print newspapers’ current troubles have roots early in the twentieth century. In 1880, newspapers’ revenue structure was quite diversified. Subscription revenue and print revenue was evenly balanced, with each accounting for about 40% of total revenue. Other revenue (job printing, book binding, and other miscellaneous revenue sources) amounted to about 20% of total revenue. … Continue reading U.S. newspapers' revenue structure, 1880-2007
Yellow Pages are now available at my local CVS just outside Washington, DC. In my apartment building, few residents bother to pick up the Yellow Pages that are dropped in the lobby. CVS seems an even less propitious place to distribute Yellow Pages. After all, a Yellow Pages book is relatively bulky. A shopper at … Continue reading desperate times for traditional Yellow Pages