Happy days here again in Muskegon - revenue, readership up

Publisher Paul Keep tells readers of the Muskegon Chronicle to cheer up as his newspaper can report signs of happiness, or at least signs that a rebound is starting.

"First, in the last few months we have seen some positive signs in our own revenue stream."

Plus, Keep reports readership is up.

"The most recent readership report from Scarborough (something like the Nielsen ratings for broadcast media) shows that combined daily and Sunday Chronicle readership rose 1.5 percent to 71.3 percent of the Muskegon County population at the end of the first three months of 2009.It was 69.8 percent in 2008."

He explains how the web figures in and more of the signs of the turnaround.

Perhaps that good news can spread to BoothMidMichigan and the east side of the state, which Keep discussed in an earlier column: "Newspaper's future in your hands."