2008 round-up: Newspapers
Last year was pretty gloomy for newspapers, with circulations continuing to fall and the financial downturn beginning to bite, while a question concerning many was the migration to digital.
One of the biggest stories of the year, at least as far as regional publishers were concerned, came in November as the BBC Trust rejected the Corporation’s plans to invest £68 million in a UK-wide web-based local video service (see BBC Trust rejects local online video proposal).
Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said: “It is clear from the evidence that, although licence fee payers want better regional and local services from the BBC, this proposal is unlikely to achieve what they want.”
In September, Northcliffe Media increased its digital presence with the launch 45 local websites. The launch of the regional sites meant that the number of online news sites Northcliffe runs outnumbered the number of newspapers it publishes (see Northcliffe Media To Launch 45 Local Websites).
This was followed by the announcement that the Daily Mail & General Trust was combining its national and regional operations, Associated Newspapers and Northcliffe Media, under the title of A&N Media (see DMGT To Combine National And Regional Divisions).
In the summer the chief executive of Guardian Media Group, Carolyn McCall, said that regional newspaper businesses would have to be “financially recalibrated” because of substantially smaller margins in the future, and this was perhaps borne out by some of the financial statements released later in the year (see GMG Boss Predicts Substantially Smaller Margins For Local Press).
There was a lesson in positive thinking from James Murdoch, making his first public appearance since taking over News Corp’s European and Asian businesses, who said that the prospects for newspapers are not as gloomy as some think, as long as companies look to innovate (see James Murdoch: Newspapers need to innovate).
Elsewhere, a survey revealed that 86% of editors around the world believed that integrated print and online newsrooms would become the norm (see Integrated Print And Online Newsrooms To Become The Norm), while News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch dismissed as “misguided cynics” those who say that the internet will kill off newspapers (see Murdoch dismisses newspaper “doom and gloomers”).
In a lecture for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Murdoch said: “Too many journalists seem to take a perverse pleasure in ruminating on their pending demise. Unlike the doom and gloomers, I believe that newspapers will reach new heights.”
There was good news for some national titles at the end of the year, with ABCe data revealing healthy increases in traffic for the Times Online and Independent.co.uk websites (see US election boosts UK newspaper websites).
2008 also saw a host of cover price rises, with the Financial Times increasing its cover price to £1.50 in January – the second rise since June 2007 (see Financial Times Cover Price Reaches £1.50).
Mid-Market title the Daily Mail increased its price by 5p to 50p in April, making it 10p more expensive than rival paper the Daily Express. The Mail said that the rise was due to higher fuel charges, printing, production and distribution costs (see Price Increase For Daily Mail). The Saturday edition also went up, from 70p to 80p, in October (see Daily Mail Saturday Ups Price To 80p).
In August News International gave the Sun a 30p cover price across the whole of the UK (see The Sun Slashes Its Cover Price Across The UK). This followed the paper’s 5p increase to 30p in London and the south-east in July (see The Sun Ups Its Cover Price). However, with a 15p price cut in November, the Daily Star became the nation’s cheapest national daily (see Daily Star slashes cover price).
Meanwhile, a round-up of the year would not be complete without looking back at the launch of MediaTel Group’s Press+ – a significant extension to the heavily used press information system within MediaTel.co.uk, a system used by over 140 media companies.
The May launch was the culmination of an 18-month, £500,000 investment in the product, which was a b2b internet pioneer in 1995 (see MediaTel Group Launches Press+).
MediaTel Group: 0207 439 7575 www.mediatelgroup.co.uk