Has Solving The Newspaper Crisis Really Come Down To This: “If I Could Do Anything, Literally Anything, To Reverse It – I’d Saw Off My Right Forearm – I Would” – UK National Newspaper Editor

Philip M. Stone Novermber 26, 2008

The editor of the UK’s Independent national newspaper describes market conditions as “horrific” because “the combination of free newspapers, free content on the Internet, coupled with this most astounding recession, makes it a very, very inhospitable time for newspapers.”

And while everyone seems to agree that the newspaper business model is broken, and there all sorts of suggestions on ways to go about fixing it, no one has yet to come with THE plan. But Roger Alton, the Independent’s editor, seems to have taken this to a new personal level. “A lot of newspapers are in trouble, but we’re in a more vulnerable position because we are smaller. If I could do anything, literally anything, to reverse it – I’d saw off my right forearm – I would.”

Obviously doing that isn’t going to do anyone any good, most of all Alton, but it is a sign of the desperation going on out there. As Alton said in his Sky News interview, “It’s horrific out there, at the moment, horrific. There’s already been carnage, and I expect there’ll be more. I’d be amazed if some newspapers didn’t fail.”

Part of Alton’s new business plan that seems to have failed miserably was to increase the newsstand price to £1 making it the most expensive quality UK national newspaper with the exception of the Financial Times. The Independent, with the lowest circulation of the three so-called quality national newspapers, costs 10 pence more than The Daily Telegraph and 20 pence more than The Times.

“It has made us very vulnerable,” he admitted. “We were aware of the risks when we did it and the ice cold winds of the recession have increased to gale force more or less from that day. From the bottom of the market to charge the most was always very risky.”

So while newspapers everywhere seem to have it in mind to increase newsstand prices this is a stark reminder there are limits. In the October national newspaper ABCs, the Independent’s circulation is down 16.29% on the year to barely more than 200,000 copies daily. 

"I feel a terrible personal failure - it’s a very nasty place to be if you’re me. I feel like I’ve let down all the staff. I feel like I haven’t been able to deliver either to them or the senior management.”

And so like many newspapers around the world Independent News & Media, the Independent’s  owner, is going to decimate its newsroom for savings of some £10 million ($15 million) annually slashing some 90 jobs, mostly editorial, at its daily and the Independent on Sunday.

Meanwhile, all the tongue in cheek talk about a bailout for newspapers may not be so farfetched. In Connecticut the Republican governor and the Democrat attorney general are saying out loud they want to find a bipartisan solution for saving two daily newspapers – The Herald in New Britain and the Bristol Press -- threatened with closing if sellers don’t come forward by January.

Governor M. Jodi Rell and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal are the two highest officials of each political party so if they jointly want something done the odds are it will get done. But neither is saying exactly what they have in mind, but they are making all the right sorts of noises about how sad it would be to see newspapers disappear.

The governor said she was “so saddened” by news the newspapers, owned by the Journal-Register Company, could close. She said that in spite of the hard economic times it was “very important” that local newspapers continue publishing.  As for Blumenthal, “That kind of closing would be a huge loss to me learning about what’s happening in this community.”  He called newspapers an “information lifeline” for they “provide really an essential service.”

“There’s something about having that paper and being able to sit there with your cup of coffee or your tea and read through and find out not only the news but the real feel for a community,” said Rell. “Any time you lose a news service, that's a lost service to the public,” said Rell, who said the closing of the newspapers would be “a real loss to the communities.”

The question, of course, is whether this is meaningless rhetoric or there is some meat behind it, so naturally one turns to the Blogosphere to discover what the public really thinks about this. Perhaps the most representative comment came from an anonymous writer, “This is meaningless political rhetoric. Read the statement carefully. They don't mention the Press specifically. They say "local newspapers". "A bi partisan effort to save them" meaning to save ALL local newspapers? I would love to see this legislation. Would it mean tax breaks for the publishers? How about subscription subsidies for low income readers? Maybe they will volunteer to sling a delivery bag over their shoulders to defray the cost of circulation.”

But another anonymous blogger may have put his finger on a real possible solution that would upset many. Publishing just “once a week (instead of daily) is fine and have the rest of the daily news on-line.”

Well, if nothing else at least the subject of papers closing down has entered the public debate and the politicians are starting to give it notice. For some newspapers such political intervention, like tax breaks and the like, could well be salvation.