Feature: Read All About It
US journalist Michael Woolff said at this year’s Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival that, thanks to the internet “No one can ever make a living selling headlines again”. Bad news for newspapers, which sell headlines sometimes hours after the event went live online or on screen.
What is true (and bad news for advertisers) is that national newspaper readership continues to decline. However, the year on year falls in monthly readership of 4.5% have reduced during this year, with the most recent figure, for July, showing a decrease of 2.5%. Meanwhile, over the same period, year on year increases in circulation have been recorded in eight out of thirteen months, including the three consecutive months to August.
However, as a recent CIA report showed, circulation has a limited effect on advertising revenue. The share of total advertising spend enjoyed by newspapers was 13.3% in 1990, but slipped to 12.7% by 1999 (NTC). Newspapers have not been immune to the ad revenue decline, and recently downgraded forecasts from ABN AMRO put this year’s growth for the newspaper sector at -1.7%. Despite an increase in the number of display advertising pages in the year to April 2001, newspaper display advertising saw a 16.3% year on year decline in June, and a 13% fall for the quarter.
Having said that, the advertising slump cannot continue forever, and newspapers appear to have the ability to ride the storm. Recent research from the US suggests that the ill-effects of the internet may be less pronounced than expected. Only 5% of respondents to a survey by Content Intelligence said they had reduced their subscriptions to newspapers because of the availability of news online.
It can also be argued that newspapers continue to hold a unique role in the media spectrum. Despite blanket TV coverage, thousands of extra copies of newspapers were sold in the wake of the WTC terrorist attack. “Television portrayed the living horror; newspapers made it real, by providing the in-depth coverage, the background analysis, and the comment which people needed.” says Lynne Anderson, communications director at the Newspaper Society.
Newspapers are also evolving to survive. Mid-market titles the Daily Express and the Daily Mail tapped into the popularity of celebrity news through tie-ins with celebrity magazines. Efforts have been made to capture more female readers, including the Mirror’s M magazine, while papers including the Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian have improved their Saturday offerings believing that people are more likely to spend time reading papers on the weekend.
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