July-Dec 2012 ABC circulations

IRE60

Sundays: http://goo.gl/Oj75J.
Mornings: http://goo.gl/DgVLh

Its not pretty! At all!

JTMan

Great articles on the iLevel.ie blog, well done. (Do we get a regionals and evening article this time around, or am I asking for too much?!!)

NWL has an article on the circulation figures here.

Guardian have an article on the circulation figures here.

The stats are a complete disaster, print is continuing its path towards terminal decline.

IRE60

Jasus - I did the evenings and didnt post them! One another machine. Regionals currently brewing (freudian slip as i'm staring down Thomas Streets finest product)

tbc..

JTMan

No worries, too many stats in one day

IRE60

Regionals anyway!
http://www.ilevel.ie/media-blog/print/102470-regional-newspapers-abc-circulation-july-dec-2012

sataction

Again thanks to IRE60 for the analysis.

Papers printed on paper are in terminal decline. The Irish Times with their increase in price to €2 are trying one of the possible stratagies keep on increasing prices to compensate for lost circulation. This is what The New York Times and The Guardian are doing. This will only work if users of the online editions can be made to pay.

The Examiner and Sunday Business Post are in real trouble, the papers are good but too expensive when you compare what they offer against the competition. The same can be said for The Sunday World and The Star their selling prices are too high when compared with other papers in the same sector.

The only way to increase circulation is to reduce price and content as the i has done in Britain. It sells for 20p and has a circulation close to 300,000 from a zero start.

The same could happen here, a 50C paper with just the essential news, like Metro, but using the 50c to improve the quality of writing.

JTMan

IRE60 wrote: »

Regionals anyway!
http://www.ilevel.ie/media-blog/print/102470-regional-newspapers-abc-circulation-july-dec-2012

Cheers! Just those 2 evening papers left so!

Silentcorner

sataction wrote: »

Again thanks to IRE60 for the analysis.

Papers printed on paper are in terminal decline. The Irish Times with their increase in price to €2 are trying one of the possible stratagies keep on increasing prices to compensate for lost circulation. This is what The New York Times and The Guardian are doing. This will only work if users of the online editions can be made to pay.

The Examiner and Sunday Business Post are in real trouble, the papers are good but too expensive when you compare what they offer against the competition. The same can be said for The Sunday World and The Star their selling prices are too high when compared with other papers in the same sector.

The only way to increase circulation is to reduce price and content as the i has done in Britain. It sells for 20p and has a circulation close to 300,000 from a zero start.

The same could happen here, a 50C paper with just the essential news, like Metro, but using the 50c to improve the quality of writing.

Couldn't agree more, I will add tho, regional paid for titles have no future, none, they are no longer relevant, the emergence of well operated free sheets have terminally damaged the local advertising market for them, in many cases the management of these titles were too slow to spot the threat.

IRE60

Silentcorner wrote: »

Couldn't agree more, I will add tho, regional paid for titles have no future, none, they are no longer relevant, the emergence of well operated free sheets have terminally damaged the local advertising market for them, in many cases the management of these titles were too slow to spot the threat.

Funny, I had the same view about regionals, before I worked for few. To the buyers they are massively relevant and its a concept lost on most people.
You only have to get inside the head of many agency types where if it doesn't happen between Bray and Balbriggan - its not happening at all. They completely miss the whole concept.

jmcc

Just thinking about it, the biggest threat to the regionals is Facebook. Traditionally the regionals specialised in births/marriages/deaths and photos. However regionals might be on firmer ground than the nationals.

Regards...jmcc

bogmanfan

If we can all agree that newspapers are in terminal decline, then what will replace them? Online versions of the print newspapers will only work if they can generate revenue - either through advertising or through a paywall. I can't see people paying to use a newspaper's website, and I fear for the both independent.ie and irishtimes.ie if they introduce a paywall. The culture online is that we're used to getting content for free. It's very hard to get people to then start paying for the same content. In my opinion they will just go elsewhere.

So what then? Obviously there is a substantial saving in printing and distribution costs by going online, but reporters, sub-editors and designers are still required to produce content, and most of them object to working for free! Are there any financial figures available for the likes of broadsheet.ie or thejournal.ie? Are they anywhere close to profitable?

IRE60

I take a vaguely optimistic attitude to this industry – coming for a half empty perspective normally – it's refreshing! So here is my take, both positive and negative.

Firstly: the person in the Indo who decided that a daily web subscription costs the same as the cover price on their products – turn yourself in for a piss test.

Costs: VAT**, retailers margin and distribution would be in the order of 50% of the cover price. So for €2 the publishers see about €1. Out of that, pre-press and printing, possibly another 20%/30% of their take.

Tablets: there is the possibly saving of some of the industry. The Philly Enquirer approached Samsung to produce a stripped down tablet. The bundle it and a three year sub to the digital version for around $250 – good value?

Really, the Interweb model is broken in some respects – free. Which it makes it the place to be. If it had been twinned with a system of micro payments then the publishers would be happier.

The ‘newspaper’ owners need to do two things – one, understand that the platform of the paper/ink is dwindling. Two, get your heads out of your keisters.

** VAT on newspapers is currently 9%, VAT on Interweb subscriptions is 23%! I see the lobby group of the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) fighting this one as well – or should they take the first leap of faith and rebrand as National Publishers of Ireland (NPI)

JTMan

bogmanfan wrote: »

If we can all agree that newspapers are in terminal decline, then what will replace them? Online versions of the print newspapers will only work if they can generate revenue - either through advertising or through a paywall. I can't see people paying to use a newspaper's website, and I fear for the both independent.ie and irishtimes.ie if they introduce a paywall. The culture online is that we're used to getting content for free. It's very hard to get people to then start paying for the same content. In my opinion they will just go elsewhere.

Some high quality content will and does work as a digital subscription. FT, WSJ and the NYT are evidence of this. Tablets will only increase digital subscriptions.

The problems for the newspaper industry are:
(1) Not enough people are willing to pay. For every 8 sales lost in print, 1 sale is gained in digital.
(2) There will always be free content online to compete with. Many peoples attitude to the Indo and IT charging will be why pay when you have Reuters, Bloomberg, thejournal.ie, RTE, Guardian, NWL/blogs and many many others giving away the product for free.
(3) Only certain content works as a digital subscription. There is zero evidence that a Herald or Sun digital subscription would work.

bogmanfan wrote: »

So what then?

Closure of print publications gradually over the next 7 years or thereabouts. Some brands will thrive in digital, some brands are about to die.

Who migrates successfully to digital subs? Quality content that appeals to the masses.

Who dies along with print and does not migrate to digital subs? Lower quality content and content that does not appeal to the masses.

FT, WSJ, NYT, The Times (UK) etc will all succeed in the digital sub world. Quality mass content.

Herald, Sun, Star will all fail to have high enough level of quality content to succeed in the digital sub world.

Examiner, KerryMan, Western People etc will disappear as they fail to have a large enough audience to succeed in the digital sub world.

The jury is out on the likes of the Irish Times.

bogmanfan wrote: »

Are there any financial figures available for the likes of broadsheet.ie or thejournal.ie? Are they anywhere close to profitable?

Boards.ie and daft.ie are clearly cross subsidising thejournal.ie. Thre is no chance that thejournal.ie is profitable.