Newspapers are a wonderful thing
CITY AM managing director Lawson Muncaster says the collective growth for newspapers across the internet, apps and the free model shows that far from being the death of the newspaper, we are actually entering incredibly exciting times with considerable growth potential…
Over the past five years, paid-for national papers including the Financial Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent and The Times have all seen their net print circulation decline dramatically.
But at the same time, the free press has seen growth. The Evening Standard went free in 2009 with a circulation figure of 596,100 and now distributes 703,317. The Metro – launched in 1999 – has seen its circulation increase from 286,805 to 784,387 and CITY A.M., which launched in September 2005 with a circulation of 55,000, now distributes 105,180. Yet in the same period, the Financial Times, for example, has seen circulation fall from 128,512 to 109,902.
These figures demonstrate that people are moving away from the paid-for to the free concept – a point by the way the trade press fail to report – MediaTel and others do not even include the free press numbers in their ABC write-ups.
The shift from paid-for to free is of course a natural development. Like all sectors, if there are new players in the market-place they will eat market share and that will continue.
However, if you look at the overall newspaper market, it means that it is actually in growth, and it’s time to recognise this fact. Over the past five years, we have seen collective growth for newspapers across the internet, apps and the free model and far from being the death of the newspaper, we are actually entering incredibly exciting times with considerable growth potential.
There are certainly lessons that the paid-for titles need to learn from the free press, however. The model is currently flawed. Today’s consumer is time poor and searching for convenience. To assume a reader will go out of their way to walk into a newsagent and buy your product is arrogant and it has taken free papers coming along and taking responsibility for introducing a new way of distribution for people to realise this. At CITY A.M. for example, our job is to ensure our readers have three of four opportunities to pick up a paper on their commute. It is not our readers’ job to seek us out.
The launch of The Sportsman in 2005 is the perfect example of where the paid-for model of distribution did not work. It was a clever editorial product with packaging and content and was a newspaper of the future that would have worked in print and digital. But they based distribution on the old traditional model and ended up paying £400 a week to sell two newspapers in Inverness.
Paid-for national papers have to get their head around a change in consumer behaviour and be prepared to adapt.
The launch of i is an interesting development in the market. The content is well-targeted and digestible and its owners have learnt from the free model by introducing a combination of the free and paid-for model at almost a token payment. This is partly because of what they are trying to do with the Independent and I actually think the i should have gone free straight away. When i launched with a distribution of 133,472 the long-term target was over 200,000 and – after a shaky start – circulation is 171,415. They are embracing change and adapting to the consumer and it is working.
It’s worth noting when the Telegram launched over one hundred years ago people talked about the death of newspapers. But it was actually the catalyst for increasing newspapers to the point of no return. In today’s society, regardless of paid-for or free, print or online, people are consuming more news and look to newspapers to define democracy and the political agenda going forward.
Newspapers are a wonderful thing. Let’s embrace the future that newspapers have in front of them and the growth potential that this offers.