Print media over the next decade?

silverharp

what changes does anyone see. Obviously the Independent group are having financial problems, is there a risk of any of the main titles disappearing?

Will demographics come into play with readership declines as their older reader die off while younger people may tend to only buy weekend papers?

XxMCRxBabyxX

A lot of the papers are now a lot more interested in having their papers online these days as they aren't making enough from physical copies! I can see a huge decline in the availability of physical papers in the future for this very reason

IRE60

"A lot of the papers are now a lot more interested in having their papers online these days as they aren't making enough from physical copies!"

Nada - only one paper group generates more on line than off - that's the LA Times. The rest of the papers are on the interweb because people are and there and they have to follow the crowd. But they gave away the silver and now want it back - News. It will take a massive shift for people even to do micropayments. Some papers will make cash from news because they command it - the FT being a prime example of subscribers getting 'premium content' and paying for it.

There will be a decline in circulations and its already begun for a myriad of reasons - internet and economics being the brimary ones. One area would be Sundays. In the last decade Sunday circulation in the Republic is down 170,000 every Sunday or 15% or €19m at the tills at rough current prices - that's like for like sales as new titles have been introduced over the decade.

The other is Regionals - but they have only themselves to blame for that. With the diaspora around the world they had Gold - Local News - they should have been the early pioneers of cheap subscription paywalls

And what did they do - nothing and even more nothing collectively.

end rant

kpbdublin

Daily newspaper circulation is declining, but at quite a slow rate. Part of this is to do with the net, but also the deep recession.

The I Times Irish Indo Examiner Star should all be safe, and should recover some advertising when the economy picks up and a decent business model emerges for online news.

Sunday Indo, S Business Post Sunday Times are all likely pretty solid.

The Sunday Trib must be in jeopardy, which would be a great shame because it has the best Sunday news coverage (but poor features).

The Herald's decline has been fairly rapid - and it could eventually copy the Evening Standard and go free.

There will be a shake-out in newspapers, but reports of the industry's death are exaggerated.

IRE60

Strangely the daily tabloids (heartland as opposed to size) have had a brutal time out of all the sectors.

The Herald???? well if the 'Hetro' wasn't in the way they could have gone the Russian route.

Trib.. the thinking would be that it is still blocking the S. Times - depends how the 'new' shareholders feel.

The Sundays I think will begin to suffer - the multiple purchase or most likely the multiple multiple sunday purchase is going/gone.

The finances of the Irish Times need sorting - not the paper - the whole group.

I'd look at the Mirror, the People which is teetering close to 20k per week now and others.

I'd say the market will have a scalp within 18 months - not necessarily a closure - perhaps a 'graceful' withdrawal.

silverharp

does anyone see INM being broken up? would it make a difference here or would the titles still continue?

Which decline is more important, readership or losing advertising to online?

kpbdublin

Whatever about the parent company, the Irish Independent, Sunday Indo and Sunday World will definitely survive. All are market leaders in their fields.

The Sunday Tribune is the most endangered paper.

Deise Tom

Can I stray off topic for a few seconds. I was wondering if anyone can help me out. I watched a programme recently on TG4 about the Connacht Tribune (I Think). In it, it mentioned the programme used to put the paper together now. I was wondering what programme/template do most papers use now adays and can it be downloaded from the net.

IRE60

To help the strays:
Some papers use a 'cobbled together' system!

Many of the pagination systems can be found in smaller versions as standalone products. But when you then get 30/40/100 people working together you need extra extensions to facilitate the publishing process, like splitting pages and tracking copy.

But the two basic packages would be Adobe PageMaker and QPS (Quark Publishing System - a bespoke system for publishing but based on the user end on Quark).

Edit: Jasus!! I left the brain i neutral when I posted that - In Design - great pagniation product.

You can download the 'basics' but not the full system used in production - unless you're minted!

silverharp

as I mentioned INM

http://www.rte.ie/business/2010/0325/inm.html
INM sells London Indy to Lebedev for a quid

Thursday, 25 March 2010 15:11
Independent News and Media has sold its British titles to Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev for £1 sterling.....................

IRE60

and saving INM about £9m a year!

Cunsiderthis

kpbdublin wrote: »

Daily newspaper circulation is declining, but at quite a slow rate. Part of this is to do with the net, but also the deep recession.

If that's the case, how do you account for the decline in sales during the boom years?

kpbdublin wrote: »

The I Times Irish Indo Examiner Star should all be safe, and should recover some advertising when the economy picks up and a decent business model emerges for online news.

Sunday Indo, S Business Post Sunday Times are all likely pretty solid.

I'll bet you that, in ten years time, two of these titles will be gone altogether (I Times Irish Indo Examiner Star) and at least one if not two of these titles will also be gone (Sunday Indo, S Business Post Sunday Times).


The fact is that, as more and mroe of us get 3g phones and have pc's and laptops, the print media becomes less and less relevant, and more and more of us rely on the internet for news at the expense of the print media.

Sales and advertising are down for all newspapers, and I'd be surprised if many of them survive in the medium term as that trend seems set to continue.

IRE60

If that's the case, how do you account for the decline in sales during the boom years?

Its really only been in decline since the start of 2008 - up to that point(since 2000) the year on year difference were +/- 1% and mainly in the positive.
Last 3 half year audits have shown -5% decline each one.

kpbdublin

Cunsiderthis wrote: »

If that's the case, how do you account for the decline in sales during the boom years?




I'll bet you that, in ten years time, two of these titles will be gone altogether (I Times Irish Indo Examiner Star) and at least one if not two of these titles will also be gone (Sunday Indo, S Business Post Sunday Times).


The fact is that, as more and mroe of us get 3g phones and have pc's and laptops, the print media becomes less and less relevant, and more and more of us rely on the internet for news at the expense of the print media.

Sales and advertising are down for all newspapers, and I'd be surprised if many of them survive in the medium term as that trend seems set to continue.

The Internet has been around for a long time and the decline in newspaper sales has not been all that fast. The Indo, IT and Star have huge circulations relative to the size of the country.


The IT's circulation is still much higher than it was thirty years ago, while the Indo has to compete with the Irish Daily Mail.

There has been a slow decline over a number of years, but it only really accelerated during the recession.

If the papers manage to find a model that they can sell over the Internet through a user-friendly platform like an iPad their future is not as bleak as the doomsayers suggest.

kpbdublin

What threat could there possibly be to the Sunday Times and Sunday Indo in the short to medium term?
The Sunday Times circulation is growing in Ireland and the Sindo sells 280,000 copies.
If any Irish paper could use a paywall profitably it would be the Business Post, because of its niche. The FT has a profitable paywall.

Deise Tom

I think i saw someplace that the times (I think) in the UK is going on line from later in the year and that they will be charging to subscribe. Guess some of the irish titles will follow down the same road.

monument

These should be of interest:

Cunsiderthis

IRE60 wrote: »

Its really only been in decline since the start of 2008 - up to that point(since 2000) the year on year difference were +/- 1% and mainly in the positive.
Last 3 half year audits have shown -5% decline each one.

I’m really talking about the phenomenon worldwide where newsprint is in decline largely due to the rise of the availability of the interweb. All around the world newspaper budgets have been slashed and their sales down year on year and the whole industry are very worried about its future.

In Ireland, a country which has seen huge immigration in the period 2002-2008, that may have acted to cushion the blow (I’m not sure) , but it seems unlikely that Ireland will buck the worldwide trend.

According to this article, http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0219/1224264797737.html ,the Irish times circulation fell by 7.4 per cent in July to December 2009 compared to the same period in 2008, the Independent fell 3 per cent, down 4,704 copies on the same period a year earlier, The Irish Examiner saw its sales slip 6.6 per cent and so on.

Perhaps some is due to recession, or migration, but the received wisdom is that, in the long term, there will be a number of titles which will go bust due to the changing way in which we get our news.

IRE60

There is no doubt that the print media are suffering and will continue – but at their own hands!

They blame the ‘internet’ for their demise, where the internet is simply the Trojan Horse that the newspapers stuffed with free information. Now, in 2010, we are seeing the first real effort of papers/magazines to protect their primary commodity – information.

But what’s the value of that? What’s the price punters paid for that information the last time? That’s the perceived value of it.

It’s too late for some – there is no doubt and others would want to screw their heads on correctly.

Seriously, would you pay €60 a year to have access to the digital edition of the Gorey Guardian? Has someone failed a “urine test” before coming up with that price point – or indeed perceiving the value of the publication?

I particularly despair of these kneejerk ‘reaction’s’ - reactions that are responding to a problem beginning 5 to 7 years ago.

Deise Tom

Does anyone think that the cost of newspapers could come down a little if they stopped including all these stupid supplements. They are stupid to me anyway. When they come my way i just stick them in the recycle bag. There is a load of them out to be collected today. The only ones i keep are the tv guide in the Saturday tabloids.

IRE60

possibly not - most of them 'wash the face' and leave some soap over!

as matter of interest - which ones do you no like?

monument

Cunsiderthis wrote: »

I’m really talking about the phenomenon worldwide where newsprint is in decline largely due to the rise of the availability of the interweb. All around the world newspaper budgets have been slashed and their sales down year on year and the whole industry are very worried about its future.

It's not a worldwide phenomenon.

It's limited. For example, it has not hit Ireland in the way it has hit countries like the US and UK.

Look at the links to graphs I posted above.

Deise Tom wrote: »

Does anyone think that the cost of newspapers could come down a little if they stopped including all these stupid supplements. They are stupid to me anyway. When they come my way i just stick them in the recycle bag. There is a load of them out to be collected today. The only ones i keep are the tv guide in the Saturday tabloids.

The supplements have paid advertising in them.

finisklin

Interesting thread....just wondering what people's views are in 2011 of the print media? Has the Ipad made newspapers more accessible? I note the Times, sun, NOTW has gone for paid subsciptions on line.

Though the level of advertising by Tesco, Dunnes, MRPI has been massive and really visible in the sunday papers with full page spreads.

outandabout

I used buy a paper every day and six or seven at weekends.

Now its The Irish Times on Saturday and the odd Monday and occasionally during the week The Guardian which is miles ahead of any Irish daily in my opinion.

On Sundays, the Observor now and again, but no Irish Sunday.

I get most of my local news on RTE television and the RTE website.

Also this board is a fairy good source of banter and debate.

In a decades time I can see no Sunday Tribune or Evening Herald but the others should hang on.

four18

outandabout wrote: »

I used buy a paper every day and six or seven at weekends.

Now its The Irish Times on Saturday and the odd Monday and occasionally during the week The Guardian which is miles ahead of any Irish daily in my opinion.

On Sundays, the Observor now and again, but no Irish Sunday.

I get most of my local news on RTE television and the RTE website.

Also this board is a fairy good source of banter and debate.

In a decades time I can see no Sunday Tribune or Evening Herald but the others should hang on.

Spot on with your Sunday Tribune comment there. Receiver appointed today !