Feature: News For The Digital Generation
It’s no secret that the national newspaper industry is in gradual decline, with the rapid rise of the internet and other new media channels causing overall circulation and readership to drop significantly over the last ten years. The latest figures from the Advertising Association also added to the malaise of the sector, by revealing that the national press saw adspend decline by 2.4% year on year during the first quarter of 2003.
However, the industry is taking significant steps to reverse its fortunes and national newspaper publishers are proving increasingly keen to stake their claim on the digital generation by extending their print titles online. Most of the UK’s major newspapers now have an online presence and as internet penetration continues to rise, the popularity of net-based news looks set to grow.
The latest figures from Nielsen//NetRatings show that Guardian.co.uk attracted an average of 1.2 million unique users in May, an increase of 5.6% on the same period in the previous year and more than twice the circulation of the daily paper. Telegraph.co.uk, which was the first national newspaper to establish an online presence in 1994, has seen its average number of users increase by 12% over the last year to 560,000, which is more than half the circulation of the Daily Telegraph.
Even thesun.co.uk managed to attract around 300,000 unique users during May, a decline of 38% on the same period in the previous year, but still around one tenth the circulation of the UK’s most popular tabloid. Ft.com saw its average monthly audience decline by 23% year on year to 416,000, but this could be due to the introduction of subscription charges for certain premium content.
The figures also show that the majority of online titles have seen readership expand over the last year and timesonline.co.uk experienced a massive 260% year on year increase in monthly page impressions during May. Thesun.co.uk saw a 53% rise during the same period and telegraph.co.uk jumped by almost 20%. However, there were some notable exceptions to this rule and guardian.co.uk saw its monthly page impressions fall by 49% year on year and ft.com experienced a 91% drop during the same period.
The increasing proliferation of newspaper websites seems to suggest that publishers are making the most of the digital environment and are expanding to become electronic news providers that cater for a range of audiences, including those traditionally beyond their reach, such as the notoriously elusive younger demographics.
Speaking at MediaTel Group’s Question Time event last year, Mike Anderson, managing director of the Evening Standard, said: “We are getting better at understanding the competitive set we are in. I’ve certainly seen a shift internally within Associated Newspapers. We have stopped thinking of ourselves as just newspapers and are understanding the broader media landscape.”
Editor of telegraph.co.uk, Derek Bishton, puts the rise of online newspapers down, in part, to an increase in demand for instant news. He views telegraph.co.uk as a valuable edition to the conventional paper, saying: “It’s an extension of the brand into a new area that allows loyal newspaper readers to feel comfortable about a medium they may not normally have approached.”
Bishton draws a clear distinction between online and print media, but believes the two complement each other on a daily basis. He says: “People can quite happily cope with watching TV, reading newspapers and logging on to websites.”
However, the bad news for online publishers is that only a small minority of these new readers is currently paying for the privilege of accessing their news online, and most newspapers are reluctant to start introducing charges for fear of alienating their audiences.
Ft.com has taken the most significant steps towards a subscription based service and while most of the site remains free, users have to pay between £75 and £150 a year for certain specialised services. Timesonline.co.uk and telegraph.co.uk have also tentatively introduced charges for certain premium content, but none have gone as far as The Wall Street Journal‘s wsj.com, which operates on a subscription only basis.
It is widely expected that it will only be a matter of time before the majority of newspapers follow the The Wall Street Journal‘s lead. Bishton says: “The days of everything on the internet being free are numbered. We are in a very competitive market where budgets are constantly being squeezed.”
He adds: “Over the next five years there will be a movement towards charging for content that is timely and valuable. I can’t see there being anything like the same amount of free, quality information online as there is now.”
Earlier this year The Times launched an electronic edition of its daily paper, which is currently available to oversees subscribers for £50 per year. The Telegraph is also planning to unveil an e-paper, offering users an online version of the Daily Telegraph exactly as it appears in print.
E-papers offer publishers a cheap and efficient method of distributing their product, and if they take off, we could be faced with a situation, in the not too distant future, whereby we simply need to pay a visit to our email inbox, rather than to the local newsagent, to pick up a copy of our favourite paper.
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