End Of Year Round Up: Press
It was a difficult year for the Press industry in 2006, with ever-declining circulation and readership figures, a freesheet war on the streets of London and new media platforms forcing titles to close.
The year began with three of the nation’s daily titles cutting their cover price. The Daily Express lopped 10p from its cover price, reducing it to 30p, while stablemate the Daily Star shed 5p to the same price. Associated Newspapers also adjusted the cover price of the Daily Mail, entering the fray with a new cover price of 30p to match its tabloid rivals (see Price War Looms As Newspapers Cut Costs).
It was announced in February that Emap’s iconic teen music title, Smash Hits, was to close following a slide in circulation and poor advertising revenues. However, the Smash Hits brand was to remain (see Smash Hits To Close As Music Fans Move Online).
A new daily newspaper, The Sportsman, came onto the market (see The Sportsman Sees Successful Debut Sales), before going into administration four months later (see The Sportsman Goes Into Administration). The newspaper finally closed in October, after talks regarding refinancing the title broke down (see The Sportsman Finally Shuts).
IPC Southbank closed Family Circle magazine after more than 40 years, because of declining circulation (see IPC Closes Family Circle), whilst Sneak, Emap’s weekly teen celebrity magazine, announced it was set to close after four years due to competition from new media platforms (see New Media Platforms Force Sneak Magazine To Close).
The daily newspaper market continued to look down in the mouth in the six months to February, with a total downturn of 4.1% in readership (see NRS National Newspaper Round-Up: February 2006), whilst the ABCs showed the nation’s popular newspapers shedding sales across the board in April (see Tabloid Sales Down As Mid Market Takes A Tumble).
By May Network Rail was seeking bids for a publisher to produce and distribute a free afternoon paper at ten of London’s busiest stations (see Bids Wanted For New Commuter Newspaper).
As national daily newspapers continued to see their readership figures slide, the Guardian developed a new method of staying on top of changing consumer patterns with the launch of a downloadable and printable A4 PDF document (see Guardian Stays Ahead With Downloadable Format).
Associated Newspapers announced in August that it was to close the free Standard Lite edition of the Evening Standard, after confirming its plans to launch its London Lite freesheet to compete with News International’s thelondonpaper (see Standard Lite Confirms Closure With New Freesheet Launch).
The Evening Standard then raised its price to 50p in an attempt to differentiate itself from the new afternoon freesheets that were set to hit the market (see Standard Raises Price As London Lite Launches).
The war between the free afternoon papers finally kicked off in earnest in September, as News International’s thelondonpaper hit the streets (see thelondonpaper Launches And The Free Newspaper War Begins). A new free magazine, Sport, also hit London’s streets in the same month (see Free Sport Magazine Launches In London).
September also saw major changes underway at the Times newspaper, with the business section of the title integrating its online and print operations. Times Online also launched the Note, a downloadable PDF available each day at 5pm, to provide news, analysis and comment on the main business stories of the day.
The Financial Times also announced that it was weeks away from fully integrating its online and print newsrooms. In July, the FT announced its merger of online and print newsrooms, saying it would create “one of the most integrated multi-media newsrooms in the world”. The Daily Telegraph also said it was restructuring along similar lines, having moved its City section into its new multimedia complex in Victoria, while the Guardian was said to also be planning to integrate its online and print business section (see Newspapers In Multi-Media Reshuffle).
By October, new free newspaper, thelondonpaper, had won the contract to distribute copies of the title at Network Rail mainline stations in the afternoon (see Thelondonpaper Wins Network Rail Contract), whilst November proved the new entries had had an impact on the Evening Standard with its circulation dropping 2.4% month on month (see Evening Standard’s October Circulation Drops).
The Press Gazette, which had been troubled throughout the year and looked set to close, was rescued by speciality publisher, Wilmington Group in December (see Press Gazette Rescued At Eleventh Hour), whilst the Evening Standard once again saw its circulation decline (see Evening Standard’s Circulation Slips As Freesheets Add Issues).
December also saw Trinity Mirror announce that it would sell off The Racing Post and 138 regional titles in the Midlands, London and the South East following its strategic review, in order to concentrate on its national and major regional titles. As a result of the review, Trinity Mirror’s national titles looked set to get new-look websites designed to play to the strengths of the internet, with a focus on news, sport and showbiz (see Trinity Mirror To Sell Racing Post And Regional Titles).