The decline continues

jmcc · 01-10-2019 3:39pm

JTMan wrote: »

Big changes coming at the SBP. It is going daily, going global and changing the name to the Business Post. Details in November. Article here.

The Currency seems to be making a play for the hardcore business reporting niche. It has some good journalists too. Not sure if they've got the pricing right though. They should have looked at getting their content on Amazon and some kind of per-article pricing structure. The monthly pricing is good if they are producing a lot of high quality content and it has the brand recognition for some of its journalists.

Regards...jmcc

Loafing Oaf · 01-10-2019 3:50pm

It will be a “digital big-data platform that just happens to have a successful newspaper on a Sunday”, he added — though the “Sunday” bit is going

And tbh the 'successful' bit never really applied in the first place...

“We’re going to be the global business newspaper,” O’Coineen declared.

Roll over Financial Times and tell the Wall Street Journal the news.:rolleyes:

IRE60 · 01-10-2019 4:02pm

if one of the best financial daily's can scrape circa 3,000 per day out of the Irish market then I think a daily BP will crash and burn (so long as he meant publishing as a physical product - its such a fluid expression in current parlance).

IRE60 · 01-10-2019 4:16pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Roll over Financial Times and tell the Wall Street Journal the news.:rolleyes:

Yea, I'd say they are sh1tting themselves!

Seaman Duck · 02-10-2019 9:59pm

How are Irish magazines like Hot Press and The phoenix stil going ? I can't imagine they sell many copies nowadays

jmcc · 02-10-2019 10:29pm

“digital big-data platform that just happens to have a successful newspaper on a Sunday”,

Have I time travelled back to the DotCom bubble? What is this buzzword bingo?

Regards...jmcc

Dr_serious2 · 02-10-2019 10:46pm

Seaman Duck wrote: »

How are Irish magazines like Hot Press and The phoenix stil going ? I can't imagine they sell many copies nowadays

The Phoenix don't deserve to sell any copies after their disgraceful conduct in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings. They refused to stand with a fellow satirical magazine, basically insinuating that the magazine asked for it by criticising radical Islam.

L1011 · 03-10-2019 8:59am

Seaman Duck wrote: »

How are Irish magazines like Hot Press and The phoenix stil going ? I can't imagine they sell many copies nowadays

Hot Press post out comps to everyone even vaguely connected to the music industry so have a very specialised advertising base. They also produce the Irish Rail onboard magazine reusing some old content which will help a bit

JTMan · 04-10-2019 4:09pm

Aldi stops selling newspapers and magazines in UK stores.

Guardian media columnist and former Daily Mirror editor Roy Greenslade said the company’s decision “appears to be yet another sign of the disruptive, nay destructive, nature of the digital revolution”.

“Once there were tablets of stone. Now we get our messages on tablets of plastic.”

Money journalist Simon Read said today it was “another blow for traditional print media”, while the Telegraph’s consumer champion Katie Morley described it as “bleak”.

Inevitable that supermarkets were eventually going to stop selling newspapers and magazines. They utilise space and demand is rapidly declining.

Loafing Oaf · 04-10-2019 4:13pm

JTMan wrote: »

demand is rapidly declining.

Particularly among the Aldi customer base, I'm guessing...

jmcc · 04-10-2019 4:45pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Particularly among the Aldi customer base, I'm guessing...

Bit simpler than that. It may have more to do with shopping habits. People may not shop in Aldi each day so a number of those newspapers and magazines will not sell. Those publications that do not sell are wasting shelf space.

Regards...jmcc

Szero · 04-10-2019 5:21pm

A sign of things to come ... other convenience stores and supermarkets will follow suit and stop selling legacy print news.

Most stores have being gradually reducing space for print publications as sales decline.

L1011 · 04-10-2019 5:28pm

My local massive convenience store that would have had a very substantial range cut it down to a core of the main women's mags, RTE Guide, Hot Press, Phoenix and a few car mags as part of reclaiming space for a seating area for the deli. Margin to workload of returning unready copies is a major problem with bothering to stock niche titles apparently.

IRE60 · 04-10-2019 7:49pm

There is a lot of 'work' in papers with daily delivery, stock control, returns etc. It's labour intensive but, not a huge amount of space given over to them in either German retailer.
One aspect might be margin vs effort. There have been a few price increases in the papers in the UK but the publishers margins are not being maintained.
So maybe it's a bit if that. while it's a headline story the real question would be what the sales were through those outlets in the first place!

JTMan · 04-10-2019 8:15pm

Some further insight into the Aldi decision here.

Regarding cause ...

Stocking newspapers and magazines "simply wasn’t profitable for them". “Supermarkets expect each square foot of space to generate a set level of revenue. As overheads increase this level is getting higher and category managers at supermarkets are asking publishers to defend why the current space given to titles should continue.”

Regarding impact of the decision ...

In March, Siobhan Galvin, commercial director at magazine publisher Egmont claimed Aldi and Lidl’s combined market share accounted for 10% of the children’s magazine market in the UK.

Interesting fact ...

A source claimed to RN that Aldi was demanding £20,000 for listing a magazine title in its stores.

:eek:

Meanwhile, Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, is removing some newspapers and magazines from stores too.

dulpit · 04-10-2019 11:47pm

Interesting. I was just in Portugal this week and noticed that apart from the odd magazine, the supermarkets didn't seem to sell newspapers at all...

doublej · 05-10-2019 12:51am

Not really a like for like comparison; the US chain have ceased the provision of FREE news and mags in their stores,and who could blame them, it’s unlikely they give away anything for free!

IRE60 · 05-10-2019 1:19pm

JTMan wrote: »

A source claimed to RN that Aldi was demanding £20,000 for listing a magazine title in its stores.

It's called 'hello money' in the trade!!!!!!

JTMan · 21-10-2019 8:18pm

Job cuts at INM in NI with apparently more to come. Amazed there are still newspaper photographers, in any number, in a job ...

a handful of staff photographers were made compulsorily redundant and sent on immediate gardening leave.

NIMAN · 21-10-2019 8:21pm

Inm going behind a pay wall?

Good luck to them.

JTMan · 21-10-2019 8:35pm

NIMAN wrote: »

Inm going behind a pay wall?

Good luck to them.

Yeah, paywall early next year apparently. Equally struggle to see how it can succeed.

Comhrá · 21-10-2019 8:58pm

JTMan wrote: »

Yeah, paywall early next year apparently. Equally struggle to see how it can succeed.

Looking at some of their content, I'd nearly want payment for reading it, never mind a paywall.

JTMan · 22-10-2019 5:51pm

More consolidation in the regional newspaper sector, as Iconic Newspapers are in advanced talks to acquire the Munster Express.

Consolidation and cost cutting is the name of the game.

The Munster Express have being generating large losses ...

Its latest accounts, for 2018, show a near €100,000 deficit in its balance sheet, accumulated losses of €850,000 and short-term bank debts of €540,000. It employed an average of 13 staff last year.

JTMan · 23-10-2019 9:03pm

INM are to shut their CityWest print plant.

I think most people saw that coming but the fact that Irish Times have not won the contract is unusual. The print contract is going to be given a mix of 3rd party companies and use their smaller Newry plant.

INM says it will also break up some of its printing requirements into smaller contracts for third-party printing companies. It is understood that The Irish Times, which also operates a printing plant in Citywest close to the INM facility, is highly unlikely to take on any of the work.

Talks between INM and The Irish Times over a potential printing arrangement were held earlier this year, but are understood to have petered out. Management at The Irish Times declined to comment.

IRE60 · 23-10-2019 9:17pm

JTMan wrote: »

INM are to shut their CityWest print plant.

I think most people saw that coming but the fact that Irish Times have not won the contract is unusual. The print contract is going to be given a mix of 3rd party companies and use their smaller Newry plant.

Newry, isn't the smallest plant in the world - relative to whats needed now. Celtic might pick up a bit. WebPrint in Cork as well - although the distribution equation might have to be tweaked.

There was an amazing bit on Drivetime where it was 'explained' that voluntary sev was offered to 1/3 of the plant earlier this year. 2/3 put in an application! So they thought if that many what out, well you know what lets do that and shut the plant down!

There's a few out there, well paid and skilled - but in a very specific craft (a few would have come through a print apprenticeship) - they will have no/little 'transferable skills' outside a print plant.

More nails for the undertakers.....

JTMan · 26-10-2019 9:16am

IRE60 wrote: »

Newry, isn't the smallest plant in the world - relative to whats needed now. Celtic might pick up a bit. WebPrint in Cork as well - although the distribution equation might have to be tweaked.

WebPrint have been mentioned in reports but Celtic have not. Celtic need a deal like this after the loss of the Mirror contract. It surely makes distribution less streamlined if INM are using multiple printers.

The Irish Times are speculating, the obvious, that this is far from the end of the cuts.

JTMan · 26-10-2019 9:17am

Telegraph has been put up for sale. DMG Media cited as a potential suitor.

IRE60 · 02-11-2019 6:21pm

SBP bought Irish Studio - huge amount of brands - perhaps a little 'last week's

https://irishstudio.com/brands

L1011 · 02-11-2019 6:40pm

Just the print assets I believe. Brave move to double down on print at this stage.

jmcc · 02-11-2019 7:49pm

IRE60 wrote: »

SBP bought Irish Studio - huge amount of brands - perhaps a little 'last week's

https://irishstudio.com/brands

Remember when Irish Central bought World Irish (the dotbomb idea to have a Facebook for Irish people but without any clue about how to do it and technologically ignorant rubbish about building a web directory by people who had never built one which didn't even make it out of the starting gate.). Then again, the Irish Times decided to sell/lease ireland.com and lose the biggest Irish category killer domain name.

Some nice brands that could be appicised but the magazine market is a tough one.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 02-11-2019 8:34pm

L1011 wrote: »

Just the print assets I believe. Brave move to double down on print at this stage.

Scale and economy of scale in the name of the game but scale will only give legacy old media print titles a slight extension in remaining life.

I bet kilcullen will lose his shirt on this gamble. He seems to be away with the fairies, as noted earlier in this thread, with his pie in the sky aspirations to target the SBP to a global audience. Also, his belief that these magazines will have a digital future is again away with the fairies, digital magazines, apart from a small number of exceptions are not selling.

Gekko · 04-11-2019 1:12am

JTMan wrote: »

Scale and economy of scale in the name of the game but scale will only give legacy old media print titles a slight extension in remaining life.

I bet kilcullen will lose his shirt on this gamble. He seems to be away with the fairies, as noted earlier in this thread, with his pie in the sky aspirations to target the SBP to a global audience. Also, his belief that these magazines will have a digital future is again away with the fairies, digital magazines, apart from a small number of exceptions are not selling.

The SBP is going downhill fast as well

jmcc · 05-11-2019 2:02pm

Gekko wrote: »

The SBP is going downhill fast as well

Finding out that Ireland is a small market when it comes to niche digital publishing? Or just declining in terms of quality and reporting with more Op-Ed bloviating than reporting?

Regards...jmcc

Gekko · 07-11-2019 4:13am

jmcc wrote: »

Finding out that Ireland is a small market when it comes to niche digital publishing? Or just declining in terms of quality and reporting with more Op-Ed bloviating than reporting?

Regards...jmcc

The latter

The former true also, and latter will accelerate decline

JTMan · 14-11-2019 8:57pm

October ABC UK newspapers in Ireland stats are out and are here.

Market down 12% YoY. The decline continues.

John_Rambo · 14-11-2019 9:06pm

The decline has me out. What was once 100% of my work (newspaper advertising) is now less than 1% of my work. Fortunately I kept up-skilling and retained old skills that are still relevant.

On the plus side... no more late nights getting retail newspaper ads over the line. Particularly this time of the year.

IRE60 · 14-11-2019 9:36pm

Oh John_Rambo - our paths possibly crossed! Yes, getting blood from a stone around Christmas and the ****ing ever changing deadline/publishing dates.

On a more telling note Sebastian Hamilton group Ed of the Mail here took redundancy! Has he the 'seeing eye'!

Loafing Oaf · 14-11-2019 9:41pm

IRE60 wrote: »

Oh John_Rambo - our paths possibly crossed! Yes, getting blood from a stone around Christmas and the ****ing ever changing deadline/publishing dates.

On a more telling note Sebastian Hamilton group Ed of the Mail here took redundancy! Has he the 'seeing eye'!

Irish daily circulation down near 25K. He must have asked himself, as Kenneth Williams did at the end of his last diary, what's the bloody point?

John_Rambo · 14-11-2019 10:55pm

IRE60 wrote: »

Oh John_Rambo - our paths possibly crossed! Yes, getting blood from a stone around Christmas and the ****ing ever changing deadline/publishing dates.

I'm sure they have... I was at the hard end of it with food retailers outpricing each other. I designed for multiple retailers and I'd submit the ads for the Sunday newspapers only to go in on a Saturday to reduce the price of a bottle of Vodka by 1c. Ego changes, that had nothing to do with profit...

Then there were the Sunday magazines that went out with the papers. I'm actually getting a headache thinking about it.

My current clients were amazed that I'd make changes within the hour and was told by one of them I was reducing my daily price by making rapid changes and to hold off and not react so quickly!!! Institutionalised idiot!!!

jmcc · 16-11-2019 7:42am

Just finishing writing book on gTLD (.COM etc) domain names and web usage. The Irish Times actually made it into the book in a good way. It apparently bought the ireland.com domain name in 1997 for £10,000 (thought the price was closer to $7000) and sold it in 2012 for 450,000 Euro. Might need a few more sales like that to pay for the MyHome.ie thing but otherwise, the whole online business seems to have cost it millions. The Indo seems to be pulling everything behind a prototype paywall. Its new owners are going to have to do a lot of because it wasn't designed with Information Architecture in mind and archive copies tends to be a nice little earner for publications.

Regards...jmcc

IRE60 · 22-11-2019 11:21am

John_Rambo wrote: »

My current clients were amazed that I'd make changes within the hour and was told by one of them I was reducing my daily price by making rapid changes and to hold off and not react so quickly!!! Institutionalised idiot!!!

My wife calls it the 'immediacy disease'! You become very reactionary as oppose to passive, still cant understand the 'manana' long finger approach to things in some quarters.

JTMan · 23-11-2019 1:34pm

Washington Post article here on the ongoing decline of local newspapers in the US.

IRE60 · 24-11-2019 1:59pm

JTMan wrote: »

Washington Post article here on the ongoing decline of local newspapers in the US.

Thanks - good summary. The Newman lab article mentioned in that story is well worth a read - interesting business in the background applauding and profiting on the decline.

IRE60 · 24-11-2019 2:02pm

Business post has a new look - not a massive departure from the last.....

Gekko · 25-11-2019 1:59am

IRE60 wrote: »

Business post has a new look - not a massive departure from the last.....

Quite a few people I know have ended their subscriptions / given up reading it in the last while

Not sure the new strategy is going to work

Might be the last gasp...

jmcc · 10-12-2019 10:03pm

IRE60 wrote: »

Business post has a new look - not a massive departure from the last.....

Newspapers always seem to do a redesign when they are losing readers. Looked at the other day but the rate at which business news changes means that the long-form journalism is a lot more difficult to sell these days and there's a generation maturing that's been effectively brought up with clickbait churnalism.

The attention span has been shortened due to the Internet and it has probably caused problems with people being able to focus enough to read long articles. As a publication, the SBP might be better suited to a "Daily Me" format on the web or via e-mail. The problem with that kind of approach is that it immediately limits the amount of advertising that can be sold because it is fracturing an already small market.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 12-12-2019 9:05pm

November 2019 ABC stats are out. UK numbers here. UK in Ireland numbers here.

12% YoY decline. The decline continues.

silverharp · 18-12-2019 8:01pm

this one became a meme

https://twitter.com/EricBoehm87/status/1206728178728865795

JTMan · 18-01-2020 8:06am

December 2019 ABC newspaper circulation in the UK numbers are out. Uk newspaper in Ireland stats here. Uk stats here. Morning UK newspapers in Ireland down a whopping 16%.

Shockingly The Telegraph have decided, to pull out of being ABC audited post December 2019. The move has been criticised by advertising groups.

IRE60 · 18-01-2020 5:28pm

JTMan wrote: »

December 2019 ABC newspaper circulation in the UK numbers are out. Uk newspaper in Ireland stats here. Uk stats here. Morning UK newspapers in Ireland down a whopping 16%.

Shockingly The Telegraph have decided, to pull out of being ABC audited post December 2019. The move has been criticised by advertising groups.

I did mean to comment! Yea, the latest figures are very concerning. The 12m rolling average of the Daily titles is falling off a cliff. Madness.

The Telegraph I think will kick off a few more papers to drop out as well and if enough of them go the ABC audit will be a busted flush – nobody will want it.

Daily Telegraph salles 317,817 a day and the Sunday 248,288, but one site, similarweb.com, estimated that their website got 65m visitors in December 2019! So,
It shows where they feel their priorities should be focused

The decline continues

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