The decline continues

Gekko · 14-04-2020 11:49pm

jmcc wrote: »

It seems that they are trying to emulate the Gruaniad in this respect but the it has a large number of daily readers online and it apparently is doing well from the subscriptions and donations. People may not completely agree with the editorial stance but will read it because of the high quality journalism. It also has a wider range of articles and coverage.

The problem for the Journal is that it does not have the same volume of daily traffic and its news coverage is definitely not in the same league.

Regards...jmcc

Very true

Guardian has a global readership

JTMan · 15-04-2020 8:18pm

The cuts keep coming ...

- Telegraph Media Group has furloughed 90 workers until end of May, with remaining staff to work four-day week from 1 May and have salaries cut by 20 per cent, including execs.
- Guardian is putting 100 non-editorial staff on furlough.
- The FT has put 20 non-editorial staff on paid leave, it has reported. The top 80 managers and editors will have wages cut by 10% for rest of 2020, board pay cut by 20%. CEO John Ridding will take 30% pay cut. Annual bonus scheme suspended and pension contributions halved.

In one sense it is surprising that the FT are badly affected as one would expect digital subs to be soaring, in another sense there is not much non-Covid-19 business news these days, and the FT print edition would be suffering with offices closed and cancelled print subs as a consequence. Perhaps some of these businesses will not resume print subs thereafter.

JTMan · 16-04-2020 3:29pm

1 March to 22 March ABC numbers are out. Different reporting period.

UK newspapers in Ireland numbers are here. 7% YoY decline in the market.

UK-only numbers are here.

The decline continues but not as rapid as expected but the numbers are mainly pre-lockdown and include the Cheltenham bounce.

The next set of numbers will be more interesting.

Muahahaha · 16-04-2020 4:28pm

Szero wrote: »

We need a decent Spotify type news product here asap.

Definitely think there needs to be a Spotify model for online journalism. Right now each individual publication has their own subscription but people want to get their news from a wider variety of sources but arent willing to pay for five or six subs.

I think if you bundled together the heavy hitters like the NYT, San Fran Chronicle, Guardian, Times, SMH, maybe a couple of others and charged 9.99 a month a lot of people would go for that, I know I would. At the moment I just donate to the Guardian on an ad-hoc basis, their messages telling me I've read 110 articles this month kind of guilt me into it. But Id happily pay a proper sub if it meant I had a wider variety of publications to read than just a single source.

Or else a huge clearing house of all online media publications where you get to subscribe and then pick the five or six you want to read for an all in monthly price.

As for print I would say the IT could be hit by the shutdown as a lot of their readership buy the paper daily out of sheer habit. Now that habit has been broken they are going to lose some readership. Other titles will be hit too as habits are broken. Even if you were in a shop every day theres not much good reason to buy a newspaper for right now, theres no sport and its wall to wall coverage of Covid 19. People are tiring of it because its been all consuming, reading page after page about it in more detail feels like you're picking at a scab.

L1011 · 16-04-2020 4:39pm

I suspect there'll be a decent increase in delivery subs of the main papers here; but not enough to offset lost shop sales. I've had to assist two cocooning individuals to get IT deliveries set up and neither would have been a daily buyer previously. One has gone 6 day, the other 6 day and SBP

My parents have started getting what I have - digital, Saturday, SBP, also now that I remember it; they're not cocooning age (just) but are going out less regardless

JTMan · 18-04-2020 8:07am

Muahahaha wrote: »

Definitely think there needs to be a Spotify model for online journalism. Right now each individual publication has their own subscription but people want to get their news from a wider variety of sources but arent willing to pay for five or six subs.

I think if you bundled together the heavy hitters like the NYT, San Fran Chronicle, Guardian, Times, SMH, maybe a couple of others and charged 9.99 a month a lot of people would go for that, I know I would.

Apple News+ is essentially a Spotify type product for news. It's 9.99 USD per month in the US and 9.99 GBP per month in the UK. It hasn't worked. Subscriber numbers have stalled. The UK product only gives access to The Times and then a series of mid-range on-the-decline-magazines. It is a poor product in the UK when people are used to thousands of sources on social media.

Whilst some of us would love access to top international publications for 1 price per month, a lot of people only want local news access (and there is not much premium Irish news for example) or just want access to the Daily Mail/Sun/tabloids where there is no premium edge and you will always get some of this content for free. Hence, there is a limited audience for such a product.

The other issue is price. Why would the FT who can get 20-30 EUR per month for subscribers to their direct platform join an aggregator, especially then the aggregator is made of largely of sub-par content.

Muahahaha wrote: »

Even if you were in a shop every day theres not much good reason to buy a newspaper for right now, theres no sport and its wall to wall coverage of Covid 19. People are tiring of it

Exactly.

JTMan · 18-04-2020 8:12am

The Economist has an article on the state of the newspaper industry in this crisis here.

- Website traffic is up 20-50% for some titles.
- Overall sales down 30% (in line with other estimates).
- Advertising revenue down up to 80%.
- Digital subs are rising at four to six times normal rates.
- But paper purchases, which mostly dwarf digital subscriptions, have collapsed and income from online ads is pennies to print pounds.
- 40-50% of what is lost may never come back after the crisis ends. Behaviours of advertisers and readers will have changed.
- The crisis will only accelerate long-standing trends.

Muahahaha · 18-04-2020 5:03pm

JTMan wrote: »

Apple News+ is essentially a Spotify type product for news. It's 9.99 USD per month in the US and 9.99 GBP per month in the UK. It hasn't worked. Subscriber numbers have stalled. The UK product only gives access to The Times and then a series of mid-range on-the-decline-magazines. It is a poor product in the UK when people are used to thousands of sources on social media.

Whilst some of us would love access to top international publications for 1 price per month, a lot of people only want local news access (and there is not much premium Irish news for example) or just want access to the Daily Mail/Sun/tabloids where there is no premium edge and you will always get some of this content for free. Hence, there is a limited audience for such a product.

The other issue is price. Why would the FT who can get 20-30 EUR per month for subscribers to their direct platform join an aggregator, especially then the aggregator is made of largely of sub-par content.

Thats interesting, Im surprised that Apple couldnt make it work, perhaps the selection of publications wasnt enough to entice people. The article says they are thinking about bundling their news product with Apple TV and Apple Music so seems like they have given up on the idea somewhat.

Id have thought that for the aggregation model to work there has to be a very wide selection of publications to choose from. If there is not it gets frustrating for consumers to be paying a sub and then maybe getting linked to an article in the Spectator or Economist and not being able to read it.

As for the FT Id imagine most of their subs are paid for by companies for their employees to read. They probably would never go the aggregator road as it would cheapen their product. Doing so would get them a wider audience but at a far lower level of payment per set of eyes reading it.

flogen · 21-04-2020 1:41pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

Thats interesting, Im surprised that Apple couldnt make it work, perhaps the selection of publications wasnt enough to entice people. The article says they are thinking about bundling their news product with Apple TV and Apple Music so seems like they have given up on the idea somewhat.

Id have thought that for the aggregation model to work there has to be a very wide selection of publications to choose from. If there is not it gets frustrating for consumers to be paying a sub and then maybe getting linked to an article in the Spectator or Economist and not being able to read it.

As for the FT Id imagine most of their subs are paid for by companies for their employees to read. They probably would never go the aggregator road as it would cheapen their product. Doing so would get them a wider audience but at a far lower level of payment per set of eyes reading it.

Part of the problem is that they can't get the publications on board in any meaningful way.

Apple are (or at least were) looking for a 50% of the subscription revenue and outlets - understandably - don't see the value in handing that much over. That's especially true if they're already having some success with standalone subscription products of their own.

JTMan · 27-04-2020 8:15pm

Interesting WSJ article here (paywall) on the fact that many regional US newspapers on the verge of collapse. Papers representing more than 80% of U.S. circulation are disqualified from the government’s Paycheck Protection Program because of the way their companies are structured.

JTMan · 09-05-2020 5:44pm

NorthSide People and SouthSide People are no longer. Liquidator to be appointed. More here.

"The Company had introduced several cost-reduction programmes before the current crisis as it struggled to combat the accelerated migration of advertising from print to online" but it was not enough.

jmcc · 09-05-2020 9:13pm

JTMan wrote: »

NorthSide People and SouthSide People are no longer. Liquidator to be appointed. More here.

"The Company had introduced several cost-reduction programmes before the current crisis as it struggled to combat the accelerated migration of advertising from print to online" but it was not enough.

A pity. Many of the local newspapers seem to be hanging on by their fingernails. Some of the nationals can't be doing well either. The IN&M takeover may not look like such a good idea now for the Belgians.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 09-05-2020 9:40pm

jmcc wrote: »

Many of the local newspapers seem to be hanging on by their fingernails.

Absolutely. A Covid-19 storm has hit an industry already in a storm. The free newspapers seem to be particularly affected.

jmcc wrote: »

The IN&M takeover may not look like such a good idea now for the Belgians.

Mediahuis timing of the acquisition, months before Covid-19, could not have been worse.

Mediahuis seem still intent on putting the house on legacy newspapers, they acquired a large newspaper group in Luxembourg last week. They have deep pockets.

Gekko · 10-05-2020 12:43am

The INM boss said in a recent interview that it now has 20,000 subscribers

JTMan · 10-05-2020 8:08am

Gekko wrote: »

The INM boss said in a recent interview that it now has 20,000 subscribers

On one hand, this is good news.

On the other hand, it does not come close to making up for a reported 70% decline in print advertising and a reported 30% decline in print sales, as well as the general decline that was going on before Cvoid-19. Also, the digital sub price is a tiny fraction of the print price.

Muahahaha · 10-05-2020 7:22pm

Gekko wrote: »

The INM boss said in a recent interview that it now has 20,000 subscribers

In fairness thats not a bad jump from the initial 7,000 they had on launch. Would be interesting to know where the extra came from though, perhaps more people subbing during boredom of lockdown. Equally it might have come from them signing up a couple of govt. departments to it for all the civil servants to read.

Its still very low though and at 9.99 a month 20k subs gives them revenue of just below 200k a month. Its a long way off the numbers of subs they need to make it viable.

Gekko · 11-05-2020 12:28am

JTMan wrote: »

On one hand, this is good news.

On the other hand, it does not come close to making up for a reported 70% decline in print advertising and a reported 30% decline in print sales, as well as the general decline that was going on before Cvoid-19. Also, the digital sub price is a tiny fraction of the print price.

Yes, if you count the ads there aren’t many. The state is subsidising them - and other papers too of course - with government ads

L1011 · 11-05-2020 9:07am

The state is the single biggest advertiser across broadcast media also, although retailers and insurers seem to be advertising quite heavily.

I presume there is absolutely zero outdoor/outdoor-associated (pub toilets, shopping centre bin sides, inside trains, etc etc) trade going currently?

IRE60 · 11-05-2020 12:47pm

Interesting one on the newsbrands website from the Indo:

"The need for independent, trustworthy and relatable stories is clear with daily newspaper sales across all titles up 8% for March 9th-15th V 2nd-8th 2020 and independent.ie reporting 31.3M page views and an average dwell time of 6.20 minutes (March 15th to 21st Google Analytics)"

Published 31st March

JTMan · 11-05-2020 12:58pm

They are obviously quoting the week pre lockdown where there was probably a hunger for news but no restrictions.

Gloomtastic! · 12-05-2020 4:11pm

From the Dublin City forum.......

odyssey06 wrote: »

The publisher of two free local Dublin newspapers, the Northside People and the Southside People, has closed its business and is seeking to appoint a liquidator.

I will miss the 'down memory lane' section of the paper, and the diverting headlines from Mrs Browns Boys

https://www.thejournal.ie/dublin-people-northside-people-close-5095392-May2020/

Muahahaha · 12-05-2020 7:44pm

Unsurprising to see that the freesheets are badly hit when 80% of the print space was advertising. But Id wonder with the 350 a week payment for staff could they not have held on? The restrictions wont last forever and there will still be a demand for local papers when this is over.

JTMan · 12-05-2020 8:08pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

But Id wonder with the 350 a week payment for staff could they not have held on?

The statement from the group hinted at problems before Covid-19, they were struggling to compete with digital advertising. Sure they could wait, but if there were pre-existing issues, rental payments and other costs, and no level of certainty as to when normality will return, they may have made the right decision.

Celtic Media own 49% of People Newspapers. Celtic Media lost the Reach printing contract and now this. Things cannot be going well for Celtic Media.

L1011 · 12-05-2020 9:23pm

Does the Irish Times still own the majority of the Dublin Gazette? Its out of print at the moment but still updating online.

JTMan · 13-05-2020 6:22am

Irish Times own 50% of Gazette.

Source: https://www.ccpc.ie › 2017/05PDF
irish times/gazette group

silverharp · 13-05-2020 10:33pm

Buzzfeed is laying off staff, so its not all bad

https://twitter.com/CNNBusiness/status/1260639218575032321

dulpit · 14-05-2020 9:49am

silverharp wrote: »

Buzzfeed is laying off staff, so its not all bad

https://twitter.com/CNNBusiness/status/1260639218575032321

Staff losing jobs is not all bad?

silverharp · 14-05-2020 10:55am

dulpit wrote: »

Staff losing jobs is not all bad?

they can #learntocode? All these algorithm driven outfits are a pox and an unsustainable one anyway, they have been decimated in the last couple of years as they werent making money just burning through he cash that been invested in them.

jmcc · 15-05-2020 1:48am

silverharp wrote: »

they can #learntocode? All these algorithm driven outfits are a pox and an unsustainable one anyway, they have been decimated in the last couple of years as they werent making money just burning through he cash that been invested in them.

It is not so much a case of #learntocode as being replaced by software. Learning to "code" and becoming a productive programmer are two very different things.

The burnrate (the money spent over the time from startup/investment until profitability) was probably horrific for some of these clickbait publications and the advertising supported model did not seem to be working out. Many people use ad blockers these days.

The other aspect is that the target market for many of these publications are either unemployed or temporarily laid off. That means that advertisers have little interest in advertising high end products and services to these demographics. Fewer high paying ads on the sites means that earnings take a dive.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 15-05-2020 7:48pm

Quartz to close UK office. 80 job loses.

Examiner appointed to Joe.ie parent.

The online media losses continue.

dohboy · 16-05-2020 1:17pm

Irish Times reaches 120,000 subscriptions. I now await as this forum will tell me why this is bad news

https://twitter.com/MarkHennessy/status/1261595988935966720?s=19

JTMan · 16-05-2020 3:11pm

dohboy wrote: »

Irish Times reaches 120,000 subscriptions.

This self reported figure is misleading and lacks context.

The ABC Irish Times audit puts the digital subs figure at 24,389 as per the cert here. But this is misleading too.

The Irish Times include free student subs and free intro subs in their figure. By one count, free student subs make up at least half of the figure.

ABC only include Irish Times subs that include an ePaper. Bizarre decision but that is the way they measure it. The basic Irish Times sub does not include an epaper.

The real figure for paid-for Irish Time subs is somewhere in-between 24k and 120k.

jmcc · 16-05-2020 3:59pm

JTMan wrote: »

This self reported figure is misleading and lacks context.

The ABC Irish Times audit puts the digital subs figure at 24,389 as per the cert here. But this is misleading too.

The Irish Times include free student subs and free intro subs in their figure. By one count, free student subs make up at least half of the figure.

ABC only include Irish Times subs that include an ePaper. Bizarre decision but that is the way they measure it. The basic Irish Times sub does not include an epaper.

The real figure for paid-for Irish Time subs is somewhere in-between 24k and 120k.

Don't forget that the duration of the subscription is important.

Regards...jmcc

L1011 · 16-05-2020 5:32pm

Examiners in at Maximum Media now.

Muahahaha · 16-05-2020 6:38pm

JTMan wrote: »

This self reported figure is misleading and lacks context.

The ABC Irish Times audit puts the digital subs figure at 24,389 as per the cert here. But this is misleading too.

The Irish Times include free student subs and free intro subs in their figure. By one count, free student subs make up at least half of the figure.

ABC only include Irish Times subs that include an ePaper. Bizarre decision but that is the way they measure it. The basic Irish Times sub does not include an epaper.

The real figure for paid-for Irish Time subs is somewhere in-between 24k and 120k.

They're basically just fooling themselves saying they have 120,000 subs when they've tens of thousands of students included in that figure who are unlikely to actually read it. Its the Emperors new clothes.

Would be interesting to know what the true figure is.

JTMan · 18-05-2020 6:49pm

The NY Times have a very detailed excellent article here on job losses across US Media.

As someone on Twitter said:
"To put things in perspective: After decades of layoffs, there were 88K newsroom jobs by the end of 2019, counting digital. According to the NYT, there have been ~36k lost jobs since then."

Shocking destruction of media jobs.

L1011 · 21-05-2020 9:35am

ABC now offering private reporting - which I suspect is to try get publications back in the fold; but is also likely to result in everyone going private so we can't see the rot anymore

https://www.abc.org.uk/newslink/113-abc-news/928-abc-introduces-new-reporting-options-for-newsbrands

IRE60 · 21-05-2020 9:47am

....and we'd like to thank the ABC for all their hard work over the last ninety years and we wish them well.......

"the publisher has chosen to manage their ABC data themselves"
"will now be a rolling release of data throughout the month"
"a contact at the publisher from whom ABC certificates can be requested"

Slán abhaile!

JTMan · 21-05-2020 10:18am

Sad that this is likely to mean a significant reduction in transparency in data on newspaper reach.

Will be interesting to see which newspaper groups opt for public data if any. When do we find out? Can we search for April 2020 data now on a publication by publication basis?

What effect does this have on the tiny number of publications left in the Island of Ireland report?

JTMan · 21-05-2020 2:51pm

I see the publications that are public have their ABC numbers on iLevel and Press Gazette.

Some shocking drops.

silverharp · 22-05-2020 4:49pm

Saw that The Atlantic is cutting staff by 20% even though their readership is up lately but I assume the advertising must be down

JTMan · 22-05-2020 6:05pm

silverharp wrote: »

Saw that The Atlantic is cutting staff by 20% even though their readership is up lately but I assume the advertising must be down

Yeah, advertising well down and their tag on events business has gone to the ground too.

jmcc · 09-06-2020 11:06pm

More content generators being replaced by software:

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/microsoft-is-cutting-dozens-of-msn-news-production-workers-and-replacing-them-with-artificial-intelligence/

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/30/microsoft-sacks-journalists-to-replace-them-with-robots

Perhaps the Gruaniad could finally become profitable?

Regards...jmcc

IRE60 · 12-06-2020 4:17pm

It was going to happen! The Irish Times along with Examiner and Echo are now listed as ‘No longer registered’ on the ABC website. Also, the SBP didn’t file a cert in Feb for the July-Dec numbers. I asked the ABC what the story was and they politely steered me to the publisher. I see now that they are also “No longer registered”.
It’s a bit of a body blow for the ABC, who are really just feeling the pinch in the print business like the brands are.
Telegraph pulled out of the ABC in Jan and there may well be a domino effect coming.

Muahahaha · 12-06-2020 4:33pm

A body blow for the ABC but also for the advertising in print Id say too. Theres a saying that half of all money spent on advertising is a waste but the trick is to know which half. Now add in newspapers not even revealing their circulation numbers (which were already dubious anyway) and confidence in their claimed reach of print advertising falls through the floor.

It would seem they are obviously embarrassed by the falling numbers and now want to hide them knowing well they are only going to get worse. That has the double edged sword of removing transparency from the market, a brand manager with an advertising budget of a million plus a year is going to be questioning the value for money in spending it on print advertising while the newspaper themselves are hiding the circulation numbers. Why would a brand manager spend money when they dont truly know what they are buying, all while other channels like TV, radio and digital have verifiable numbers.

IRE60 · 12-06-2020 4:54pm

The ABC are simply auditors and reporters of those audits. The decline in numbers is nothing to do with them! Again, they simply report them. As someone who worked on certification for a newsbrand for a few years, the ABC the numbers are verifiable numbers. There is no hiding.

Radio research is a face to face interview -questionable at times. Digital, I refer you to Maximum Media. TV – TAM is a decent enough product.
So, the criticism of the ABC, in this case, is misdirected. It’s like shouting at Bryan Dobson for reading out bad news!

NIMAN · 12-06-2020 5:06pm

I'm not sure what is going on with the Indo website but they have match reports from euro2012?

Muahahaha · 12-06-2020 5:06pm

oh no Im not criticising the ABC, quite the opposite. When I said 'they' in terms of the embarrassment of falling numbers I meant the newspapers are embarrassed and want to hide it, not the ABC, sorry if that wasnt clear.

Im making the point that newspapers titles abandoning the long held practice of their numbers being independently audited removes transparency from the advertising market. Without the ABC circulation audit brand managers who need to assess their advertising spend vis a vis the reach of that spend are now doing so blind and in the dark. That would surely frighten any brand manager, after all you cannot count what you cannot see. The ABC fulfilled that vital role but now with newspapers opting out of it then trust and confidence in circulation numbers is gone. A market functions off information, remove that and it isnt a level playing field and advertisers will look elsewhere.

IRE60 · 12-06-2020 5:32pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

oh no Im not criticising the ABC, quite the opposite. When I said 'they' in terms of the embarrassment of falling numbers I meant the newspapers are embarrassed and want to hide it, not the ABC, sorry if that wasnt clear.

Im making the point that newspapers titles abandoning the long held practice of their numbers being independently audited removes transparency from the advertising market. Without the ABC circulation audit brand managers who need to assess their advertising spend vis a vis the reach of that spend are now doing so blind and in the dark. That would surely frighten any brand manager, after all you cannot count what you cannot see. The ABC fulfilled that vital role but now with newspapers opting out of it then trust and confidence in circulation numbers is gone. A market functions off information, remove that and it isnt a level playing field and advertisers will look elsewhere.

Crystal clear now! and I agree with you. What metric do you supply a potential advertiser. I've said it before - an old boss of mine used to say the a Publishers Statement (un-audited circulation number) is as sincere as a kiss from a whore!

L1011 · 12-06-2020 8:49pm

This is why the ABC are now offering private audited figures (hide the shame but have something to give to advertisers who want some proof of value); but beyond Newscorp nobody seems to be using them yet.

The decline continues

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