Freesheets In Focus At ‘Future of National Newspapers’ Seminar
The success and future of freesheets was one of the topics debated at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the ‘Future of National Newspapers’.
Looking at whether a national newspaper could move to a free distribution model in the near future, panellist Lawson Muncaster, MD of City AM thought that it could happen. “The cost of distribution of newspapers is bloody expensive. The free model is a lot cheaper so there’s a huge cost saving there,” he said.
Fellow panellist Alex DeGroote, analyst at Panmure Gordon, was not quite as sure, however, pointing out that the industry is in ruder health than some might have us believe, with recent price rises by some nationals showing that people are prepared to pay for the content they want.
He said: “The recent history of the industry is that there has been tactical price cutting; for example the Sun, over a number of years now has been experimenting with sporadic price cutting and by and large it’s not really had a major impact, but that’s what they do. Is there any appetite amongst proprietors to go free? I just don’t see it frankly. Although the general picture of circulation trends in the UK is not healthy, it’s not that bad. Cover price rises have been put through and generally they are sticking.”
Also discussed was the problem of getting young people to read newspapers, with Rich Mead, assistant managing director of Metro Newspapers, pointing out that there is a concern that paid for titles do not appeal to younger audiences.
He said: “When you start trying to interrogate why, you see that younger audiences have grown up with the concept that things should be free. If you look at news or music, photos or video, younger audiences take it for granted that it’s free.”
He added that part of moving forward with paid for titles “is trying to make the transaction process as easy as possible, and that’s what I think is interesting at the moment with developments like the Times and the Sun [being sold] on the street and with the Eros cards and things like that… where newspapers are truly trying to find innovative ways to ease the transaction process”.
Muncaster agreed that the transactional ease of freesheets is an advantage for the time-poor commuter. “People don’t have time. The whole idea of finding a newspaper stall is a difficult one. You don’t have an appointment to go to your newsagent anymore. Our job is about frequency, it’s about giving someone the opportunity to pick our paper up at four or five points on the journey to work,” he said.
Mead added: “The young reader is time starved and not willing to take the time out of their commute. When the Metro came out in the UK it was bringing in new young readers who previously weren’t reading national newspapers. Why weren’t they reading them? Because they weren’t in the habit of going into a newsagent and buying a product. The ease of transaction is why we’re doing well.”
The debate also featured some lively interaction with the audience, with one attendee asking if any of the panel could see a Sunday paper move to free distribution.
News International’s Dominic Carter said that social change has been the driving factor with regards to the Sunday newspaper market, adding that overall there may be a tipping point but most paid for papers will not go free.
DeGroote concurred with Carter that social change had been the biggest factor affecting Sundays: “There aren’t free newspapers on a Sunday and yet this is the market segment that has been hardest hit in the past decade – the reality is that social change has been the biggest factor behind diminished circulation.”
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