It ain't all bad for newspapers
While newspaper circulations continue to sag around the world and proprietors continue to wrestle with questions about the future of media (fundamentally, how to move to internet delivery while maintaining profitability), there is some good news for print.
The Guardian has increased its circulation year on year by 4.4 per cent since moving to a tabloid (or rather Berliner) format. It has also increased its full-rate sales and its circulation market share. And it hasn't just been The Guardian. Other newspapers, including The Independent, that have changed format have also seen their circulations rise. The big question is whether these increases are ongoing or just a one-off spike.
Meanwhile UK readers may also be moving, in print from the popular papers such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, to the more serious papers. Online, however, the popular papers are thriving. Newspapers have been falling over backwards in recent years to attract new readers, but that is a dangerous game. As one Times media writer notes:
The Guardian has increased its circulation year on year by 4.4 per cent since moving to a tabloid (or rather Berliner) format. It has also increased its full-rate sales and its circulation market share. And it hasn't just been The Guardian. Other newspapers, including The Independent, that have changed format have also seen their circulations rise. The big question is whether these increases are ongoing or just a one-off spike.
Meanwhile UK readers may also be moving, in print from the popular papers such as The Sun and The Daily Mail, to the more serious papers. Online, however, the popular papers are thriving. Newspapers have been falling over backwards in recent years to attract new readers, but that is a dangerous game. As one Times media writer notes:
Some editors and marketers might also note a pertinent comment by Martin Kettle in last Saturday’s Guardian: “The media are preoccupied by the fact that young people are less interested in newspapers and news programmes. So the media are permanently reconceiving and rebranding themselves to appeal to people who do not want to read or watch them rather than to people who do.” Hear, hear to that.
posted by Rob O'Neill at 9:14 AM
4 Comments:
How 'bout some mixed lollies?
They're there, Max, scroll down
You don't have to go far afield to find a successful progressive newspaper. The Northern Advocate has been transformed under the editorial leadership of Laura Franklin from stodgy to vibrant and circulation is growing. It may be happenstance: the area of coverage is local enough to require local reporting and circulation is sufficiently large and varied to allow enough of national and international news, features etc to take the place of Big Momma Herald. Whatever the formula, it is certainly working of late.
Yrs, you don't really hear much about local or regional papers being displaced by the internet. It's always the nationals.
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