The decline continues

JTMan · 21-05-2019 6:04pm

The Times Ireland Daily edition to close. Last edition probably on 21 June 2019.

17 people have lost their jobs. 3 people to be retained for the digital edition.

Circulation had declined to 3,363.

dulpit · 21-05-2019 6:34pm

JTMan wrote: »

The Times Ireland Daily edition to close. Last edition probably on 21 June 2019.

17 people have lost their jobs. 3 people to be retained for the digital edition.

Circulation had declined to 3,363.

Very disappointing news. The quality was getting better and better with more Irish focused content. The loss of jobs will result in what I can only assume is an inferior product, that will be essentially a UK publication with limited Irish content.

Hope the journos land somewhere good...

IRE60 · 21-05-2019 8:54pm

They are keeping the digital edition - with much reduced staff

21-05-2019 8:56pm

IRE60 wrote: »

They are keeping the digital edition - with much reduced staff

No wonder it was reduced to €5pm recently. Hopefully the content doesn’t drop too drastically.

dulpit · 21-05-2019 11:32pm

cisk wrote: »

No wonder it was reduced to €5pm recently. Hopefully the content doesn’t drop too drastically.

It'll have to. It'll be the end of their investigative stuff, which has been quite good over the last year or so.

JTMan · 22-05-2019 7:25am

Irish Times are reporting that Mediahuis to keep cutting costs at IN&M.

Costs will be cut in print operation due to "redeployment" (translation: outsourcing printing to the Irish Times), cuts in other fixed assets (distribution going too?), cut in other areas once Mediahuis have examined the business (usual editorial cuts).

Will "invest in INM brands" but "business is transitioning gradually from print to digital".

jmcc · 22-05-2019 4:00pm

JTMan wrote: »

Irish Times are reporting that Mediahuis to keep cutting costs at IN&M.

There's a bit of a "better them than us" attitude to the IT's coverage of these cuts.

Will "invest in INM brands" but "business is transitioning gradually from print to digital".

The Dindo website is a complete mess from an Information Architecture point of view and there is a possible archival business there that has been missed by the crayon jockey web design that has the site operating in an kind of eternal now (no back editions to which access could be sold).

Regards...jmcc

L1011 · 22-05-2019 4:17pm

INM's archive ops are somewhat chaotic and effectively outsourced to the Irish Newspaper Archives for the entire group including Regionals. They unfortunately seem to have been given muddy microfiche for most of it and the OCR falls to bits before the 1960s; which contrasts hugely to the Irish Times offering it all themselves with pretty decent OCR

expectationlost · 22-05-2019 7:03pm

obviously a UK based decision but would a leaky paywall have helped Times Ireland

JTMan · 22-05-2019 7:11pm

expectationlost wrote: »

obviously a UK based decision but would a leaky paywall have helped Times Ireland

The Times Ireland have a leaky paywall, free reg for 2 articles per week, just not as leaky as the Irish Times paywall.

OldMrBrennan83 · 22-05-2019 7:13pm

Their subscription cancellation policy was always too shady or I would definitely have paid for the content they offered.

expectationlost · 22-05-2019 8:11pm

JTMan wrote: »

The Times Ireland have a leaky paywall, free reg for 2 articles per week, just not as leaky as the Irish Times paywall.

opened article in private browser and its say subscribe if want more then the first paragraph it offers you a free trial but when I enter an email address it goes 404

if you go the free trial elsewhere it offers you first month free but wants your credit card to start charging you next month

IRE60 · 23-05-2019 11:20am

dulpit wrote: »

It'll have to. It'll be the end of their investigative stuff, which has been quite good over the last year or so.

The economic reality is that the Times Ireland ABC is currently only 800 copies above its pre-launch numbers. That's not sustainable.

marieholmfan · 23-05-2019 11:30am

IRE60 wrote: »

The economic reality is that the Times Ireland ABC is currently only 800 copies above its pre-launch numbers. That's not sustainable.

People buying it by accident or because the Irish Times is sold out ; or very occasional spikes because of Brexit and Windsor Weddings and Babies.

expectationlost · 23-05-2019 2:27pm

The Future Of Newspapers RTE SOR
BROADCAST • 10:00 • 23rd May 2019

Aine Kerr, Kinsen, Ian Keogh, Former Editor of the Sunday Business Post, Kate Shanahan, Head of Journalism at TU Dublin, Mark Hennessy, Irish Times
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21559230

JTMan · 23-05-2019 7:11pm

The WSJ have an article about how to navigate a collapsing magazine print market here.

Print businesses can be divided into “problems” and “situations.” Problems can’t be solved with any amount of time and money. Situations, on the other hand, can. Don’t waste money trying to fix hopelessly weak problem ones, no matter how strong the romantic attachment.

Perhaps this is some good advice for Mediahuis regarding the many regional and several national problem INM brands.

IRE60 · 24-05-2019 10:23am

expectationlost wrote: »

The Future Of Newspapers RTE SOR
BROADCAST • 10:00 • 23rd May 2019

Aine Kerr, Kinsen, Ian Keogh, Former Editor of the Sunday Business Post, Kate Shanahan, Head of Journalism at TU Dublin, Mark Hennessy, Irish Times
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/html5/#/radio1/21559230

Thought the panel was good - bar Aine, who's remit was to recycle news content in their app! When questioned about how much the publishers would get from that app she stumbled - I'll paraphrase for her ' emmmm, fcuk all'.
Another company recycling others proprietary work!!

IRE60 · 24-05-2019 10:29am

JTMan wrote: »

The WSJ have an article about how to navigate a collapsing magazine print market here.

Perhaps this is some good advice for Mediahuis regarding the many regional and several national problem INM brands.

'The titles had the richest history and greatest prestige, but they depended on news content easily found elsewhere.'

Isn't that the Crux of the matter!!!!

JTMan · 27-05-2019 7:27pm

Harvard's Neiman Lab reports that the Boston Globe might have entered the small club of publications (FT, WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, Guardian etc) who have successfully made the transition to digital. Also, it might be the first ever local publication to make a successful transition.

Harvard's NL go on to set 4 interesting criteria that a publication needs to meet to make a successful print-to-digital transition:

Making more revenue from digital sources than from print.
Making more revenue from readers than from advertising.
Achieving net revenue growth, with digital dollars rising more quickly than print dollars are falling.
Having more digital subscribers than print subscribers.

No Irish publication is even remotely close to meeting this criteria.

Boston Globe print circulation has collapsed from 504,869 to 98,000. Digital subs are 112,241.

In the midst of free falling print sales, a tiny number of publications are succeeding digitally.

expectationlost · 27-05-2019 11:50pm

JTMan wrote: »

Harvard's Neiman Lab reports that the Boston Globe might have entered the small club of publications (FT, WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, Guardian etc) who have successfully made the transition to digital. Also, it might be the first ever local publication to make a successful transition.

Harvard's NL go on to set 4 interesting criteria that a publication needs to meet to make a successful print-to-digital transition:
Making more revenue from digital sources than from print.

Making more revenue from readers than from advertising.

Achieving net revenue growth, with digital dollars rising more quickly than print dollars are falling.

Having more digital subscribers than print subscribers.

No Irish publication is even remotely close to meeting this criteria.

Boston Globe print circulation has collapsed from 504,869 to 98,000. Digital subs are 112,241.

In the midst of free falling print sales, a tiny number of publications are succeeding digitally.

could Boston globe really be described as local?

JTMan · 28-05-2019 8:36am

Fair point. Boston Globe is not exactly a standard local newspaper but covers local news but has a global reach.

Meanwhile, Laura Slattery, writes in the Irish Times that more UK newspapers may abandon their Irish edition ...

The existence of these editions has long been regarded as a head-office wheeze to use sales in the Republic to bolster circulation totals. If there is no other commercial imperative for being here, then the logic of this strategy will inevitably falter after 12 years of a declining print market.

IRE60 · 28-05-2019 9:49am

JTMan wrote: »

Fair point. Boston Globe is not exactly a standard local newspaper but covers local news but has a global reach.

Meanwhile, Laura Slattery, writes in the Irish Times that more UK newspapers may abandon their Irish edition ...

I begin to glaze over when Laura discusses anything to do with Associated Newspapers Ireland. It's the same 'party line' stuff as seen when they report on the papers ABC - its their take on the facts.

IRE60 · 30-05-2019 10:14am

DMG posted results today

Half Year Revenue:
Daily Mail / The Mail on Sunday - £208m -5%
MailOnline £76m +25%

JTMan · 30-05-2019 11:54am

Interesting.

Print down 5%. Sales down 10% but profit down 5% via cost cutting.

Digital - via free with adverts model - the model that everyone had considered to the bin - seems to be back suceeding for DSG. They say it is just to their app and more direct visitors outside of social media. Interesting. I think DM Online might be an exception to the free does not work model. A bit like the way the Guardian is an exception too but thanks to donations in their model.

"Events" made 100 million profit. Not sure what type of events they organise. SBP is getting into events too.

expectationlost · 30-05-2019 4:06pm

Press Council Ombudsman annual report https://www.presscouncil.ie/about-us/recent-decisions-and-news/annual-report-for-2018-launched-

Speaking on RTs Morning Ireland, Mr Feeney pointed out how a site like Facebook would draw a readers' attention to a newspaper story, which is then read online but the newspaper does not receive revenue from the reader actually buying the paper. However, Facebook receives the online revenue.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2019/0529/1052336-press-council/ where does one read full articles on facebook? if people are copying full articles you can complain about copyright infringement and get the page shut down

dublinman1990 · 30-05-2019 4:17pm

There was a report yesterday about the state of the newspaper industry on the RTÉ 6.1 News. Did anyone see it?

EDIT: Ah. I can see the link above my post.

IRE60 · 30-05-2019 9:57pm

"Speaking on RTs Morning Ireland, Mr Feeney pointed out how a site like Facebook would draw a readers' attention to a newspaper story, which is then read online but the newspaper does not receive revenue from the reader actually buying the paper. However, Facebook receives the online revenue"

The crazy thing about that is that SOR had a panel recently, it was like an American Wake, bemoaning the demise of the industry. One of the panelists supporting the business has set up an app to 'customise' a users news intake - aka - I''ll skim other sites, throw it on mine and collect the revenue from ads. The publishers, well they can lube themselves - for me.

expectationlost · 30-05-2019 10:32pm

IRE60 wrote: »

"Speaking on RTs Morning Ireland, Mr Feeney pointed out how a site like Facebook would draw a readers' attention to a newspaper story, which is then read online but the newspaper does not receive revenue from the reader actually buying the paper. However, Facebook receives the online revenue"

The crazy thing about that is that SOR had a panel recently, it was like an American Wake, bemoaning the demise of the industry. One of the panelists supporting the business has set up an app to 'customise' a users news intake - aka - I''ll skim other sites, throw it on mine and collect the revenue from ads. The publishers, well they can lube themselves - for me.

they don't use ads https://kinzen.com/faq for now

jmcc · 31-05-2019 7:12pm

IRE60 wrote: »

The crazy thing about that is that SOR had a panel recently, it was like an American Wake, bemoaning the demise of the industry. One of the panelists supporting the business has set up an app to 'customise' a users news intake - aka - I''ll skim other sites, throw it on mine and collect the revenue from ads. The publishers, well they can lube themselves - for me.

The funny thing is that the idea isn't new. The "Daily Me" idea of filtered and curated news has been around since the 1990s and even Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Medialab fame was pushing it. The management of Kinzen looks relatively strong but there's nothing to stop the newspaper publishers pushing their own version of such an app. The long-term option for the company seems to be a trade sale to one of the large publishers.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 04-06-2019 7:20pm

The FT reports on the increasing use of robots to write news articles in a fascinating article here.

Main robot news system is called Radar — Reporters and Data and Robots.
Bloomberg, AP, Iliffe Media and JPIMedia are amongst the users of robots.
Radar is a joint venture between Press Association and data journalism start-up Urbs Media with an investment from Google.
JPI (Scotsman, i and lots more) publishes 700 robot stories a week.
Previously, robots were just used for sport and company results but now used for human interest and other areas.
Example of fees - Radar charge 1,270 GBP per year per council that a media group wants a robot to cover.
Iliffe Media say readers cannot tell the difference between a robot story and a human story.

Clear way for newspaper groups to cut costs further and cut journalist jobs further. Regional newspapers seem most primed for robot usage.

jmcc · 05-06-2019 9:47am

JTMan wrote: »

The FT reports on the increasing use of robots to write news articles in a fascinating article here.

Some of the work I've been doing for the last few years is on the classification of website usage over the gTLDs (COM/NET/ORG/BIZ/INFO etc, the new gTLDs) and some ccTLDs. At the moment, the full TLD surveys for NET/ORG/BIZ/INFO and a few other gTLDs are being processed (approximately 27 million websites).

One of the main changes in the last five years or so is the automated generation of websites from blog posts, search engine results and content scraped from other websites. The Chinese market is amazingly volatile and there is software available to churn out thousands of these sites. To the ordinary user, these sites look genuine. It really is amazing to see them in operation because they change structure so frequently.

There is also content "spinning" software available in the English language market that takes content and changes words so that sites can reuse content from Wikipedia and other sites.

As part of the work on classifying website usage, it was necessary to examine some of the algorithms used to automatically generate these sites. It doesn't look good for basic journalism.

The problem for most entry level journalists is that the algorithms used for these sites could just as easily be used to spin the press releases upon which so many publications now depend for a lot of their content. The lower the expertise of the journalist in the area that they are covering, the easier they are to replace with some of these algorithms. The only safeguard would be to develop in-field expertise and do it quickly.

Regards...jmcc

BarryD2 · 05-06-2019 10:07am

Reads like the news cycle could become one huge echo chamber, with new material principally being thrown in by spin doctors, advertisers and sundry vested interests. Churn it all and out comes the news stories for the day that's in it

Of course, these elements have long existed and even independent journalists have their own agendas, but still.

The maintenance of 9% VAT for print and the reduction of the 23% to 9% VAT for digital publications should be helping newspaper & periodical publishers here. That is assuming, they swallow the differential and don't pass it onto the customer.... having lectured other businesses in the past re not passing on VAT reductions!!

IRE60 · 06-06-2019 3:44pm

JTMan wrote: »

The FT reports on the increasing use of robots to write news articles in a fascinating article here.
Main robot news system is called Radar — Reporters and Data and Robots.

Bloomberg, AP, Iliffe Media and JPIMedia are amongst the users of robots.

Radar is a joint venture between Press Association and data journalism start-up Urbs Media with an investment from Google.

JPI (Scotsman, i and lots more) publishes 700 robot stories a week.

Previously, robots were just used for sport and company results but now used for human interest and other areas.

Example of fees - Radar charge 1,270 GBP per year per council that a media group wants a robot to cover.

Iliffe Media say readers cannot tell the difference between a robot story and a human story.

Clear way for newspaper groups to cut costs further and cut journalist jobs further. Regional newspapers seem most primed for robot usage.

Interesting perspective of a hack (in the comment section) on holdthefrontpage - who works on a paper that uses RADAR

'However, the stories have no local context and no local comments. Hospital stories have a generic DoH comment, education stories have a DfE comment etc. This really infuriates local authorities because they then call us and (rightly) ask why there has been no chance for them to comment or contextualise the story'

JTMan · 07-06-2019 2:48pm

Journalists are obviously not going to like robotic articles.

Interesting that they complain about a lack of context and a lack of comment.

As the FT article states, robotic articles have come a long way in a short period of time and no doubt will get better with context and perhaps better and asking for comment via auto-emails or bot calls with time.

It is believable that with time robots will write better articles in certain fields that journalists because they can analyse much greater data sets in much quicker time-frames.

JTMan · 07-06-2019 2:53pm

Meanwhile, more cuts, this time at The Sun. Also, massive losses for News UK. Not clear if the cuts effect Ireland or not.

jmcc · 08-06-2019 7:17am

JTMan wrote: »

Journalists are obviously not going to like robotic articles.

They will hit the entry level journalists who rely on press releases hardest. Many of them won't be journalists for much longer if this kind of robo-journalism takes off. And some print publications are losing readers to sych an extent that they will use anything that can save them money. I'm not sure of the costs of wire services but this robo-journalism will be a competitor to some (some of the wire services seem to use the approach already).

Interesting that they complain about a lack of context and a lack of comment.

Good journalism puts things in context. It should, theoretically, present both sides.

It is believable that with time robots will write better articles in certain fields that journalists because they can analyse much greater data sets in much quicker time-frames.

The problem with analysing data sets is that there's a step between explaining what the analysis means and the raw analysis. The problem for journalists when it comes to providing that analysis is that they have to have in-field knowledge. Economics would be a good example. It is possible to crunch a data set of economic data but extrapolating from results of the crunch would require more knowledge. The only way that journalists can keep ahead of this is to continually upskill and expand their knowledge of the field that they are covering.

The local and regional newspapers may be more resilient when it comes to this form of journalism because their main strength is often local knowledge, the Births, Marriages and Deaths section, and classified adverts. The classifieds business might be under some threat from local Facebook buy and sell groups but the free papers tend to be quite robust on this because they have nearly 100% coverage of their markets.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 08-06-2019 10:38am

jmcc wrote: »

They will hit the entry level journalists who rely on press releases hardest. Many of them won't be journalists for much longer if this kind of robo-journalism takes off. And some print publications are losing readers to sych an extent that they will use anything that can save them money. I'm not sure of the costs of wire services but this robo-journalism will be a competitor to some (some of the wire services seem to use the approach already).

Newspaper groups have being pros at cost cutting. As the sunset continues to draw closer for most of the print industry, far more cost cutting will be needed. Robotics is expected, for now, to effect lower grade workers the most, robo-journalism is a good example of this.

jmcc wrote: »

The local and regional newspapers may be more resilient when it comes to this form of journalism because their main strength is often local knowledge, the Births, Marriages and Deaths section, and classified adverts. The classifieds business might be under some threat from local Facebook buy and sell groups but the free papers tend to be quite robust on this because they have nearly 100% coverage of their markets.

In some senses yeah in other senses a robot can take a national news story and attempt to add some local flare to the story in certain but not all cases.

Local free/non-free newspaper classifieds are struggling. Where once free local newspapers were distributed door-to-door, now 10k copies are printed and dumped in the local supermarket where a few people pick them up and less and less people care about advertising in them. Local newspapers face the same competition from Done Deal, Adverts, Google Adwords, RIP.ie, Daft etc

callaway92 · 08-06-2019 10:47am

Just an example of how robot articles look/work (in sports from my field):

We have reporters for NBA in work that write 'headlines' on our system. Robots write articles from these (and put them together using the analytics/data that we have) and then anyone that's subscribed to use our articles can publish it etc:

6:10 p.m.

Klay Thompson is back in the Golden State Warriors' starting lineup for Game 4 of the NBA Finals, as expected.

Thompson missed Game 3 with a hamstring strain. He's starting with Stephen Curry, DeMarcus Cousins, Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green.

It's the usual starting five for the Toronto Raptors - Kyle Lowry and Danny Green in the backcourt, Kawhi Leonard and Pascal Siakam at forward and Marc Gasol at center.

---

5:45 p.m.

Stephen Curry says Game 4 is "a must-win" for his Golden State Warriors.

The NBA's cameras caught up with the Warriors guard as he walked into Oracle Arena for Game 4 on Friday afternoon. Curry was stoic as he talked and walked for a few seconds.

Curry says, "It's a must-win. Every game's a must-win for us. That's how we feel. But tonight especially, we've got to get back in the series and take it from there."

Toronto leads Golden State 2-1 in the title series going into Friday's matchup

---

5:15 p.m.

Mychal Thompson agreed with the Warriors' decision not to play his son in Game 3 of the NBA Finals because of Klay's strained left hamstring.

Klay Thompson missed the first postseason game of his career to snap a streak of 120 straight playoff games.

He is set to return for Game 4.

Mychal Thompson, a former two-time NBA champion, said Friday Kobe Bryant was Klay's inspiration and his idol growing up and "he knew that Kobe didn't sit out for nagging injuries and he wants to try to follow that example throughout his career. And he was very proud of his playoff streak that he had going on. He wanted to keep that alive as long as possible."

Mychal said "all of those things came into play and he felt like he could play if it was the seventh game, but I think Steve (Kerr) did the right thing giving him a couple extra days of rest to make sure he's fresh and ready."

---

4:50 p.m.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr says he done providing details of Kevin Durant's rehab.

The two-time reigning finals MVP is missing his ninth straight game since straining his right calf in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals against Houston.

Kerr said Friday before Game 4 that the Warriors are "hoping he can play Game 5 or 6. And everything in between I've decided I'm not sharing because it's just gone haywire."

The coach says "there's so much going on ... it doesn't make sense to continue to talk about it. He's either going to play or he's not. So tonight he's not playing."

--

4:25 p.m.

Kevon Looney got a second opinion and a second chance to play in these NBA Finals.

After Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Looney would miss the remainder of the series against Toronto with a displaced first costal cartilage fracture, the team now says he may be able to play in Game 4.

Kerr says Looney is "just tough and he wants to play."

Looney got hurt in Game 2 when he was defending a drive by Toronto's Kawhi Leonard.

Looney has been a major part of the Warriors' big-man rotation. His addition is an obvious boost.

---

4:15 p.m.

Hall of Famer Al Attles is expected to attend Game 4 of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena.

Al Attles III told The Associated Press Friday his 82-year-old father will be in attendance. It will be the first game Attles, who has had health issues, has attended this season.

The Warriors trail the series 2-1 and this could be the final game at Oracle Arena with the team moving into a new building next season.

The former point guard was named player coach of the Warriors midway through the 1969-70 season. He guided the Rick Barry-led Golden State team to the 1975 NBA title.

---

9:40 a.m.

The NBA Finals resume Friday night amid the fallout from the incident involving Toronto guard Kyle Lowry.

Game 4 of the title series between Toronto and Golden State is on tap. The off day following the Raptors' Game 3 win on Wednesday was dominated by reactions to Warriors' investor Mark Stevens shoving Lowry at courtside. Stevens was banned by the league for a year and fined $500,000.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says Stevens was spared a lifetime ban because he's never been disciplined by the league before and because he was deeply apologetic for his actions.

Kevin Durant will not play in Game 4 for Golden State as he continues recovering from his calf injury, but the Warriors are getting Klay Thompson back after a one-game absence with a strained hamstring.

Loafing Oaf · 08-06-2019 1:16pm

Current Indo big tech podcast focuses on the future of Irish media:
https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/news/the-big-tech-show-why-we-the-media-are-not-screwed-38191334.html

surprisingly positive overall, although a lot of the 'good news' stories they highlight come from other countries

JTMan · 09-06-2019 6:20pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

Current Indo big tech podcast focuses on the future of Irish media:
https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/news/the-big-tech-show-why-we-the-media-are-not-screwed-38191334.html

surprisingly positive overall, although a lot of the 'good news' stories they highlight come from other countries

Thanks for sharing.

I felt the podcast was very wishy-washy. They talked little about the elephant in the room (the rapid decline of print), talked about "value add" solutions but rarely mentioned specifics.

The little that was specific was mentions of paywalls (but said scale was needed), seemed to indicate that online advertising alone was not the right model, talked about how the industry could create 'marketplace' portals for property etc (:rolleyes:) and how governmental intervention was needed with VAT (but it would just be a plaster on a much bigger problem).

Largely seemed like an attempt at an optimistic outlook on the print industry but if it was so vague on the solutions in the face of a cliff-edge urgent problem for print, and without immediate solutions it just made me feel more than ever that the print news industry is totally screwed.

IRE60 · 10-06-2019 3:57pm

Oh it was utter sh1te. Rather than clapping each other on the back, as the barn burns(!), could they not have found one dissenting voice for balance.

The one thing I liked was that there was the fact that they believed that the publishers in general let the social media players in.

There was a condescending attitude to them - who's laughing now!

JTMan · 13-06-2019 6:41pm

May ABC UK newspaper in Ireland stats here.

13% decline in the overall market YoY. The journey into the sunset for print continues.

May ABC UK newspaper stats here.

IRE60 · 13-06-2019 7:13pm

The Reuters institute did their annual report which becomes very interesting as the dust settles. 12% here pay for online news....

https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/risj-review/digital-news-report-2019-out-now

IRE60 · 14-06-2019 1:55pm

Not to be outdone - the BAI, Reuters and DCU did an analysis of the study specifically for Ireland here http://www.bai.ie/en/download/133992/

But, perplexed is not the word, and a line jumped on by the Irish Times yesterday (I'm sure they could have tipped into the Circulation dep to verify some of the information) - referring to 2018:

'The Irish Times saw a 26 per cent rise in digital sales in 2018, but it was the only Irish newspaper to grow across both print and digital during this period'

The digital part is correct - had any paper increased it's sales in 2018 there would have been a fanfare and perhaps ticker tape!!!

JTMan · 14-06-2019 7:02pm

IRE60 wrote: »

'The Irish Times saw a 26 per cent rise in digital sales in 2018, but it was the only Irish newspaper to grow across both print and digital during this period'

The digital part is correct - had any paper increased it's sales in 2018 there would have been a fanfare and perhaps ticker tape!!!

They are quoting Laura Slattery who has a few times sugar coated the Irish Times in her media articles with misleading or in this case false statements.

jmcc · 15-06-2019 4:00pm

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

surprisingly positive overall, although a lot of the 'good news' stories they highlight come from other countries

So as reliable as its "technology" journalism then?

Regards...jmcc

jmcc · 15-06-2019 4:33pm

IRE60 wrote: »

Not to be outdone - the BAI, Reuters and DCU did an analysis of the study specifically for Ireland here http://www.bai.ie/en/download/133992/

But, perplexed is not the word, and a line jumped on by the Irish Times yesterday (I'm sure they could have tipped into the Circulation dep to verify some of the information) - referring to 2018:

'The Irish Times saw a 26 per cent rise in digital sales in 2018, but it was the only Irish newspaper to grow across both print and digital during this period'

The digital part is correct - had any paper increased it's sales in 2018 there would have been a fanfare and perhaps ticker tape!!!

Some of the stats in that report should be quite terrifying for Irish publications. There does seem to be a decline in trust. The readership of the Irish Times being largely a bunch of Lefties is quite comical but not surprising.

The 12% paying for news is a bit strange as it isn't broken down by subscription type (just skimming through the document at the moment). A one-off purchase is very different to a yearly and renewing subscription.

The biggest problem for the Irish "news" media has been its steady drift away from news towards opinion. From my own perspective, should I pay for the opinion of some "technology" journalist who is barely able to turn their mobile phone on without blowing their head off? Or should I, instead, subscribe to news sources from specialists and people who understand technology and the business of technology.

Now extrapolate that to other specialist areas and the generalist mainstream media is at a serious disadvantage against specialist and niche publications. Would people pay for commentary by experts and specialists rather than press release recyclers? The fragmentation of the Irish market already seems to be happening in the business field and it is even mentioned in the document. (The Currency is a good example.)

There may well be a fragmentation of the Irish news market with the most vaulable, or more easily monetised, sections being cherry-picked. The mainstream media will be at a disadvantage because they cannot afford to dilute their existing brands. Previously, the mainstream publications would have adopted an embrace and extinguish strategy by buying these successful publications but many of the mainstream publications don't have the funds for this now.

Regards...jmcc

JTMan · 17-06-2019 8:08pm

Tyrone Times shuts up shop as JPIMedia shut down 10 UK regional titles.

JTMan · 26-06-2019 8:24pm

Mediahuis deal receives shareholder approval.

That's CCPC and shareholder approval done.

Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment approval and High Court approval to be received.

Muahahaha · 26-06-2019 9:14pm

Has anyone seen any articles or analysis on how the Guardians donation/crowdfunding model is working? Is it said to be successful and has there been any financials published on it?

The decline continues

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