Newspapers

Tomred33

How come the price has not come down. The paper is cheaper and they are small than they used to be. Newspapers might investigate stories but they never look at themselfs. We do need newspapers and I am glad we have the Irish times but it can be expensive.

gerrycollins

year on year they have increased their prices but like many suppliers I have they will probably quote the old "we havent increased our prices this year" argument which is crap btw

sceptre

Tomred33 wrote: »

How come the price has not come down. The paper is cheaper and they are small than they used to be. Newspapers might investigate stories but they never look at themselfs. We do need newspapers and I am glad we have the Irish times but it can be expensive.

Has the Irish Times become smaller?

In any case, the cost of actually printing the papers is pretty minimal. The saving (if anything substantial) from converting from broadsheet to tabloid is negligible compared to other costs, especially in high-run newsprint runs.

Cabaal

paper may be cheaper but what about the actual printing process, staff costs, rental, delivery...oh look they've all gone up

So a newspaper is not just based on paper

If you can show that ALL costs have dropped then your argument may actually make sense

Sofiztikated

If they're too expensive, don't buy them.

Also, you do have access to this magnificent thing called the internet. Each and every newspaper has a website, which is usually more up to date than the papers themselves, as websites can be updated instantly, whereas newpapers are old news the minute they are printed.

And the "Oh, it hasn't come down in price, it must be a rip off" mentality is getting old very quick.

Run_to_da_hills

Online media has also done untold damage to hard copy media, with less sales and still the same overheads many of these newspaper groups may not be able to lower the price of their media.

It also dose not help with the higher cost of newspapers here than in the UK. Our Government still charges VAT, this all leads towards the law of diminishing returns just like the recent airport tax imposed on those leaving the country.

I use to get the times every day but now only at weekends, don't bother with the Sunday rags at all and may get the Herald the odd time if there is some breaking news or a scandal reported.

ScouseMouse

Newspaper make most money from advertising. The retail price doesnt even cover the costs involved. At present advertising is down massively as companies are cutting back.

I was talking to a large broadsheet newspaper this week and he told me circulation was down 18%. Things are really bad.

A large newspaper company in Ireland, that everyone knows, bulks up their audited sales by giving away large amounts of papers to pubs and shopping centres for 5 cent each. This is still classed as "sales" so they can claim X amount of circulation and readers. Its just a scam.

Its true that the cost of papers here is to high. However, economies of scale come into it big time. Its cheaper to print 500,000 copies of something than 100,000. Ireland is to small to match UK prices and circulation. Plus the sheer cost of wages, distribution. The usual same culprits.

ejmaztec

Are any newspapers actually printed in the South now? One of our "local" weeklies, The Kerryman (along with its sister paper, The Corkman), has been printed in the the North for some years, leaving behind an empty factory and a redundant workforce.

These papers were never cheap when they were produced down here, and they're still not cheap, even though they're supposedly knocked together in a lower-cost environment. Local rags are obviously heading towards extinction.

tipperaryboy

The printing costs might be very minimal and of course there is other costs aswell but that is no excuse for charging so much for one.Surely they must be still making huge profits even though the internet has affected newspapers badly there is still a large amount of people who buy one or even two every day.

rubadub

I'm surprised the price has not gone up, or more papers have not gone bust. 10 years back my workplace was littered with tabloids, now its just the freebie metros and only a few of them. I think only one lad in work buys a paper now.

91011

tipperaryboy wrote: »

The printing costs might be very minimal and of course there is other costs aswell but that is no excuse for charging so much for one.Surely they must be still making huge profits even though the internet has affected newspapers badly there is still a large amount of people who buy one or even two every day.

Can you point to a newspaper that is making "Large profits"

#1 - Profit is not a dirty word - if a company could not make a profit then it would not exist.

#2 - print & media companies have had a terrible 2 years. I don't think theer is a single newspaper that is making a profit from their hard copy paper.

#3 - Think of the process. News breaks at 6pm, story is written, checked & verified, sports result are collated, financial prices are collated, all entered into printing format, paper put together, printing presses roll (mostly at Citywest in Dublin), papers collated, bundled together, addressed to the various retail outlets, sorted into delivery routes, vans arrive to collect papers from 10pm and through the night, drivers drive to EVERY corner of Ireland overnight. In morning the paper is sitting in your newsagent.

Total cost to you €1.20 - €2.50.

Please please please show me where on EARTH is the rip off in this????

Dr. Nick

@ OP

Paper has come down in price approx 20-30% in 2009 so assuming paper is, say 20% of their cost, we should have seen a decrease of 4-6%.

BTW paper's now going up......

91011

YNWA wrote: »

@ OP

Paper has come down in price approx 20-30% in 2009 so assuming paper is, say 20% of their cost, we should have seen a decrease of 4-6%.

BTW paper's now going up......

newsprint paper is extremely cheap and would not come anywhere near 20% of costs - more like 5%

ScouseMouse

YNWA wrote: »

@ OP

Paper has come down in price approx 20-30% in 2009 so assuming paper is, say 20% of their cost, we should have seen a decrease of 4-6%.

BTW paper's now going up......

But advertising IS going down. A smaller paper means less adverts. Less adverts mean less income, so believe it or not, smaller paper means higher price. Bigger paper (full of adverts) would be more constructive to lower price.

ednwireland

i buy a sunday paper and the local 2 weekly gossip rag

i used to buy the irish times which i stopped not long after the euro came - they cranked the price up so regularly after that and i just got fed up with the hikes, so now i scan the times and the indo online and thats it