The Internet has also gone a step further than television in eroding the advertising income of newspapers, as – unlike broadcast media – it proves a convenient vehicle for classified advertising, particularly in categories such as jobs, vehicles, and real estate. Free services like Craigslist have decimated the classified advertising departments of many newspapers, some of which depended on classifieds for 70% of their ad revenue. At the same time, newspapers have been pinched by consolidation of large department stores, which once accounted for substantial advertising sums.
e t h t ew a e p n s p r is dead . he decline of newspapers has been widely debated as the industry has faced down soaring newsprint prices, slumping ad sales, the loss of much classified advertising and precipitous drops in circulation. In recent years the number of newspapers slated for closure, bankruptcy or severe cutbacks has risen—especially in the United States, where the industry has shed a fifth of its journalists since 2001. Revenue has plunged while competition from Internet media has squeezed older print publishers. This has strictly affected only the United States or the English-speaking markets though there is a large rise in sales for countries like China, Japan and India.
Press baron Rupert Murdoch once described the profits flowing from his stable of newspapers as “rivers of gold.” But, said Murdoch several years later, “sometimes rivers dry up.” “Simply put,” wrote Buffalo News owner Warren Buffett, “if cable and satellite broadcasting, as well as the Internet, had come along first, newspapers as we know them probably would never have existed.” As their revenues have been squeezed, newspapers have also been increasingly assailed by other media taking away not only their readers, but also their principal sources of profit. Many of these ‘new media’ are not saddled with expensive union contracts,
printing presses, and delivery fleets and overhead built over decades. Many of these competitors are simply ‘aggregators’ of news, often derived from print sources, but without print media’s capital-intensive overhead. Some estimates put the percentage of online news derived from newspapers at 80%.
The debate has become more urgent lately, as a deepening recession has cut profits, and as once-explosive growth in newspaper web revenues has levelled off, forestalling what the industry hoped would become an important source of revenue. One issue is whether the newspaper industry is being hit by a cyclical trough and will recover, or whether new technology has rendered newspapers obsolete in their traditional format. To survive, newspapers are considering combining and other options, although the outcome of such partnerships has been criticised. Despite these problems, newspaper companies with significant brand value, which have published their work online, have a significant rise in viewership.
The newspaper industry has always been cyclical, and the industry has weathered previous troughs. But while television’s arrival in the 1950s presaged the decline of newspapers’ importance as most people’s source of daily news, the explosion of the internet in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century increased the panoply of media choices available to the average reader while further cutting into newspapers’ hegemony as the source of news. Both television and the Internet bring news to the consumer faster and in a more visual style than newspapers, which are constrained by their physical form and the need to be physically manufactured and distributed. The competing mediums also offer advertisers the opportunity to use moving images and sound. And the internet search function allows advertisers to tailor their pitch to readers who have revealed what information they are seeking—an enormous advantage.
““Newspapers Newspapers are doing the reporting in this ccountry, ountry,” observed John S. Carroll, former eeditor ditor of The Los Angeles Times for five years. “Google and Yahoo aren’t those people putting reporters on the street in any number. Blogs cannot afford it.” Many newspapers also suffer from the broad trend toward “fragmentation” of all media – in which small numbers of large media outlets attempting to serve substantial portions of the population are replaced by an abundance of smaller and more specialized organizations, often aiming only to serve specific interest groups. So-called narrowcasting has splintered audiences into smaller and smaller slivers. But newspapers have not been alone in this: the rise of cable television and satellite television at the expense of network television in countries such as the United States and United Kingdom is another example of this fragmentation.
long live the newspaper.
UK and US see heaviest newspaper circulation declines UK circulation fall of 25% since 2007 is second only to the US where the decline was 30%, according to OECD report —James Robinson k newspapers have suffered the most dramatic circulation declines of any country outside America since 2007, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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Over the 10 years from 1997-2007, it says, the number of jobs in the US has fallen from 403,355 to 356,943, a fall of 12%. The decline has accelerated drastically since then.
It cites figures provided by the New York Times, which says about 70% of its 1.1 million registered online users are subscribers to its print edition.
The study says that newspapers are unlikely to disappear, however.
A detailed study published by the OECD paints a bleak picture of the industry.
Although 2009 was the industry’s worst on record in OECD countries, the “potential positive effects” of the economic recovery in 2010 are already improving their commercial performance.
The global newspaper market generates 57% of revenue from advertising, the OECD said, although that figure is far higher in many developed countries, most notably in the US, where newspapers are reliant on advertising for 87% of their income.
It found that UK circulation has fallen by 25% between 2007-09, second only to the US, where the decline was 30%. Greece (20%), Italy (18%) and Canada (17%) have also seen significant falls. The report, The Evolution of News and the Internet, found that 20 out of 30 OECD countries faced declining newspaper circulations. The growth of the global newspaper market slowed progressively from 2004 to almost zero in 2007, the OECD said, and has shrunk since 2008 – falling by 5% in that year – despite growth in countries in the developing worlds. The falls were most pronounced in North America, which saw drops of 14% in 2008 and 18% in 2009. About half of OECD countries experienced drops below 2004 levels, with the United States (-34%), the United Kingdom (-22%) and Japan (-18%) the worst hit. The OECD reports that job losses in newspapers have “intensified” since 2008, particularly in the UK, US, the Netherlands and Spain.
The study also found that more than half the population read news online in some OECD countries, including Korea, where 77% do so. Despite that, “the willingness to pay for online news remains low”.
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The figure is 50% in the UK, according to the OECD, and lowest in Japan (35%), which has some of the world’s bestselling newspapers and the highest levels of newspaper penetration. Online advertising revenues accounted for a “minuscule” proportion of total newspaper revenues – just 4% in 2009.
Figures show that 25-35% of traffic to news websites comes from Google.
It points out that: “The specialised press performs better than general newspapers”, online, citing the Wall Street Journal as an example. Its also concludes: “Reading news online complements other forms of news rather than replacing it.”
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News was a significant driver of internet traffic, however, with an estimated 5% of searches related to reading news online. The OECD described that as a “conservative estimate”. Figures for the UK show that 25-35% of traffic to news websites comes from Google.
The report’s authors claimed that newspapers are burdened with fixed costs, which are dominated by non-editorial activities including promotion and distribution. That makes them particularly vulnerable to a downturn and “less agile” when trying to adapt to changes ushered in by the internet. “Given the central role of news for democratic societies, the evolution of news creation and distribution are a matter of public interest”, the report’s authors say. “The question is whether and how the production of high-quality and pluralistic news content can be left to market forces alone”. The study includes an analysis of the methods used in some OECD countries to try to support newspapers, including state subsidies and moves to protect newspaper content. The report concludes that “no business and/ or revenue sharing models have been found to finance in-depth independent news production. This raises questions as to the supply of highquality journalism in the longer term.”
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da ly ma l i t e ti m es th gu ardi n e t e ind pende nt h
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p aper c irculation 2011 2012 2013
the sun daily mail the times the guardian independent Data sourced from the Audit Bureau of Circulations
Chart showing the average circulation of newspapers in January for the last 3 years. Evidence suggests the circulation of newspapers is gradually declining.
Is the internet really killing print publishing – or could it prove to be its unlikely saviour, with niche magazines thriving in the digital era? —Mark Hooper
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espite what you may have heard, reports of the “death of print” have been greatly exaggerated. A survey in April by Deloitte found that 88% of magazine readers in the UK still prefer to consume articles via print. While half of respondents to its state-of-themedia survey (2,276 UK consumers, aged 14 to 75) owned a smartphone, 35% subscribed to at least one printed magazine in 2011. Of course, with the adoption of tablet devices on the rise, this figure could well be out of date already – particularly given the rapid improvement in the quality of digital publications, and the demand for them to do more than merely replicate the content of print titles online. But, regardless of some high-profile print closures in recent years, the stories of doom and gloom in the publishing industry have been tempered by a mini renaissance in independent titles. And old-fashioned paper and ink has an unlikely saviour. “Ironically, I attribute it to the internet,” says Jeremy Leslie, the man behind magculture. com, a site any self-respecting magazine junkie has bookmarked. “A lot of people have discovered their opinions and voices writing blogs and sharing in social networks. A natural next step is to create something permanent … I think the mainstream publishers have let down the industry and individuals are trying to create better publications.” But it’s not just amateurs who are responsible. Some of the internet’s big players – fashion sites such as style.com, asos.com and netaporter. com, online kids’ game Moshi Monsters and yes, even Google itself – are now publishing print magazines, using traditional media to refresh the parts of their business model that other solutions can’t reach.
pounding waves of the 24-hour news cycle have their appeal”, their quarterly magazine – Delayed Gratification – instead takes a leisurely (and contrary) look backwards over the previous three months before publication. “We have no interest in creating throwaway media,” they say. “We want to make something which is treasured, which ends its days making the bookshelf, coffee table or toilet just that little bit prettier and more civilised.”
“For online brands, print is a neat way of gaining extra marketing attention and boosting their community, even if there’s no money in it,” says David Rowan, editor of UK Wired. “I like the Vice magazine model – the print publication that started the empire still exists to anchor the brand and define the voice, but the money comes from the TV channels, the brand partnerships, the events, the record label.” Rowan himself has been busy extending the Wired brand, both by producing multimedia content and also through a series of live conferences and events. One of the best examples of a truly integrated multimedia success story has a very different target audience. Moshi Magazine, the spinoff print title for the online kids’ game Moshi Monsters, posted an ABC figure of 162,838 in February, putting it ahead of men’s magazines such as Nuts (114,116) and FHM (140,716). And it’s clear that these kids are still in love with paper. “You might be able to look at a digital game or magazine on an iPad, but you can’t cut things out, colour-in, take pen to paper or stick it on your wall,” says Emma Munro Smith, editor of Moshi magazine. Despite hugely popular online elements to the Moshi world, for Munro Smith’s readers, “having their work, letters or username immortalised in print will always be incredibly exciting”. This idea of the permanence of print, particularly among younger generations supposedly reared in the digital age, is something dear to the heart of Gerald Richards, CEO of 826 National, the literacy project set up by novelist and publisher Dave Eggers. “When we watch students with books, there’s a very different experience – there’s that power of having something physical that they own, particularly when they write and see their name in print: it’s always there. With computers, it’s gone at the touch of a button.” Marcus Webb and Rob Orchard, editorial directors of the UK’s Slow Journalism Company, echo this sentiment. “For all the wily charms of the digital world and its tweets, feeds, blogs and apps, there is nothing like the pleasure created by ink and paper,” they insist. While admitting that “live-blogging and the
But 826’s Richards, a charismatic, affable character, is keen to stress that the two worlds can co-exist and support one another. “It’s not an either/or situation,” he says. “It works in tandem. One is a resource for the other: you read something in a book, then you look it up on a computer.” Let’s not forget that McSweeney’s, the highly influential, postmodern literary journal that Dave Eggers founded, now has a hugely successful app that delivers short stories and lengthy book extracts direct to your smartphone, belying the “short online attention span” myth. “Students are often writing blogs anyway,” adds Richards. “The beauty of online is that it allows them to instantaneously share with a larger audience. But the relationship with books is different. Kids take books home and they can keep them.” To Richards, whose students often come from underprivileged backgrounds, that’s an important factor: as he explains, these children “often only have religious books at home”. Eggers himself agrees that it’s often counterproductive to create divisions and make comparisons between the worlds of online and print. “It’s our admittedly unorthodox opinion that the two can co-exist, and in fact should coexist,” he announced via a rare public foray into email. “But they need to do different things. To survive, the newspaper, and the physical book, needs to set itself apart from the web. Physical forms of the written word need to offer a clear and different experience. And if they do, we believe, they will survive.” “It’s simply a matter of defining the different role and purpose of print and online,” says Sara Cremer, MD at customer communications agency Redwood. “Print does certain things very well. There’s a sense of reward – almost luxury – of devoting time to the printed page that you can’t put a price on. But at the same time, there’s an immediacy and ‘shareability’ to
that, “magazines are simply very effective ways of engaging with people. To the greatest extent, it just seems like common sense to us that any company would want to communicate with people through print.” Vince Medeiros, the company’s publishing director, is an unashamed “sucker” for the idiosyncrasy and physicality of print. Think Quarterly’s Speed issue used a barrier-grid animation on its cover to convey movement, while the Innovation issue came with magnets on a metallic cover. “Only in print,” Medeiros enthuses. Furthermore, he identifies a growing number of what he calls “post-web” independent magazines that “have come into being as a reaction to the internet” – but also online entities that have made a successful transition to print such as It’s Nice That and Blanket. With little or no advertising revenue, such titles often find their voice and readership online – usually out of necessity.
t h e online world that’s just as valuable in its own unique way.” Crucially, for Cremer, whose job it is to oversee integrated communication strategies for major clients ranging from M&S and Boots to Land Rover and Barclays, the two often work best when created and used in conjunction with each other. “It’s about consistency,” she says. “However many channels you’ve got [ie in print or online], if you haven’t got quality content, you’re wasting your money.” If print really can anchor the brand and define the voice, often it is far more successful than intended. For instance, Joerg Koch produced a print phenomenon by chance when cofounding the influential Berlin magazine 032c: “Quite absurdly, when we launched 032c as a biannual limited edition newspaper around 2000, it was supposed to be the advertisement for our website, to promote the URL,” he explains. “However, we found out that the print magazine is so much more efficient in terms of budget and recognition than doing a streaming media website, which we aspired to back then. So the magazine got a life of its own and grew into a big glossy mag celebrating print’s qualities.” Ironically, the website now serves primarily as an archive for the magazine. The magazine’s accidental success has certainly done Koch no harm – he is now editor-in-chief of the recently launched Interview Magazine Germany – and it’s given him an interesting perspective on print’s future role. “You don’t need print for news any more,” he says. “But for long, visual-driven stories, it can offer a business model and an immersive focused quality that digital cannot offer yet.” But he also agrees that creating boundaries between the two can prove unhelpful. “It is only helpful to make the distinction if you can then emphasise and radicalise the inherent qualities and advantages of both media. I just don’t get why people always see it in either/or dichotomies; it’s more about the ‘AND’.” Which brings us neatly to Google. The very same organisation that was once accused of looking to kill off print with its digitised Google Books Library Project now has its own print journal, Think Quarterly, created by The Church of London creative agency. Like Cremer, Danny Miller, the company’s founder/MD, points out
Innovations such as the Newspaper Club take advantage of the unique qualities of the web – community spirit and accessibility – to give would-be publishers the rare chance to create their own print product. How? By co-ordinating downtime at printers so that independent publications with small printruns can be produced at affordable prices. Everyone’s a winner. How do you track down these tiny-circulation inspirations? A good place to start is Stack, a subscription service that delivers a different indie mag every month. “So is this the dawn of a new model, and can this model transcend the niche of specific communities?” Medieros ponders. “Who knows. But it’s an interesting development.” More than that: it’s proof that creativity and ideas will always find new ways to inspire younger generations. Just ask Moshi Monsters’ Munro Smith: “Computers and video games haven’t killed physical toys and games, so there’s no reason why the digital world should kill print. Lack of innovation or providing a poor product is far more likely to do that. The amazing range of technological opportunities that can be used to support and interact with print are definitely a bonus, not a threat.” The kids, in other words, appear to be all right. As 826’s Richards neatly surmises: “Really, as long as they’re reading and wanting and interested in the written word, we’ve achieved success”.
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Is print dead? This is a question that has been buzzing around the marketing world since the rapid surge of the Internet and social media. While many businesses have completely migrated their advertising efforts to the web because of its cost effectiveness, exposure potential and convenience, print still maintains its stance as a powerful and necessary component of an ad campaign. Let’s take a closer look at print media and some advantages it has over its digital counterparts.
t a n g i b il i t y A print piece is a physical thing. Magazines and newspapers can stay in houses or offices for months or years, while Internet ads can disappear into cyber space instantaneously.
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vs There is something about print that gives a sense of legitimacy. The saturation of popups and banner ads on the web can be overwhelming and the fear of spam and viruses is enough make people weary of clicking. There is no imminent danger in a print ad.
i d g n n a br Print ads are excellent for solidifying your brand identity. Your ads should have a consistent aesthetic in terms of fonts, colours and types of images to establish brand recognition.
m a r k e ti ng Placing ads in publications such as specialty magazines can effectively reach niche audiences that may be more difficult to target online.
e n g a gi n g Consumers are more engaged when reading printed material, unlike websites, which are often skimmed in as little as a 15 second visit. A study shows that people read digital screen text 20% – 30% slower than printed paper. (Alshaali & Varshney, 2005)
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Placing QR codes on printed pieces is an excellent way to bridge the gap between print and web. When scanned with a smartphone, the QR code will take you to a homepage or a special offer page that lives on the web.
The best way to market your business is to utilise as many channels as possible to reach every corner of your target demographic; this should not exclude print. Although it is likely that most emphasis, in terms of advertising, will be executed online, there still exist those who revel in the glory of the printed page and it’s important to reach them. Finding the right balance between various media will ensure a steady revenue flow, an increase in sales and new customers.
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