The jury is still out on afternoon freesheets, according to Stuart Taylor, commercial director at Guardian News and Media, panellist at today’s MediaTel Group seminar on the future of newspapers.
Taylor said that whilst morning free paper
Metro has now formed strong relationships with readers, the same cannot yet be said of the afternoon titles.
He added: “They’ve had a lot of negative publicity but they’re still there. Both players in this market have got deep pockets and they’re determined to do something about it.
“I think there is a world of difference between choosing something and paying for it, and being handed something, and I think the free papers in our research are good enough, they’re not seen as an alternative in people’s minds, for quality newspapers particularly, but they are seen as good enough to pass a bit of time, and I think if there’s a market there, it’ll be found and these guys will find it.”
However, fellow panellist Ian Clark, general manager at thelondonpaper, was predictably upbeat, saying that News International, publisher of thelondonpaper, “is not doing it as an experiment. We’re in it to make money and I’d be surprised if we didn’t break even within the next 12 months”.
He pointed out that free papers are very popular with younger readers, which is particularly notable at a time when many are talking about the difficulty of getting youngsters hooked on print.
Part of this could be related to the similarities between the presentation of content in free papers and online, said Clark. “There’s an awful lot of similarity between free papers and the digital side of things. You look at the internet, for example BBC online, it’s a fantastic site but I don’t expect many people go on there to read long articles, you’re picking up a lot of snapshots of your news there.”
Clark also mentioned circulation trends, with the obvious inference being that freesheets are going from strength to strength. He said: “There has been a 65% increase in circulation of free newspapers in Europe in the last two years. It would be completely wrong to just ignore that trend and, arguably, News International has sat on the sidelines for too long.”
Meanwhile Simon Marquis, chairman of NRS, said that although free papers have a bright future it is not inevitable that all newspapers will eventually go free. He said rather that it is conceivable that paid-for titles will increase their cover prices, becoming expensive individual purchases and evolving into different products.
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