Dog Days For Newspapers

Michael Hedges September 6, 2012 Follow on Twitter

Despite predictions dire and dismal newspaper publishing continues to hold on amidst the digital onslaught. The internet has not killed the daily paper but, certainly, changed it. And the search for business models has the rapt attention of all.

Newspaper circulations globally rose 1.1% between 2010 and 2011, according to the annual World Press Trends survey of data from about 90% of the world’s newspaper publishers, released at the WAN IFRA Congress in Kiev, Ukraine. Circulation declines in Europe and North America were offset by gains in Asia. Per capita newspaper distribution remains highest in Northern Europe, Norway leading, with Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea added to the top dozen national markets. Data was particularly light from African publishers.

Changes in publisher’s revenue streams have moved forward the quest for more robust business models. Per copy sales continues to represent more than half of the newspaper industry’s income. “I think this figure will remain in the near future,” said WAN IFRA Deputy CEO and Communications Director Larry Kilman to the assembled newspaper people, quoted by Ukrainian media portal Telekritika (September 4). “Although publishers focus on digital ambitions, they still invest in print media.”

Into the analysis of the WAN IFRA World Press Trends data comes the dirty detail that newspaper websites are attracting “a large number of causal visitors that do not turn into a high level of regular traffic.” Web surfers, the vast majority of internet users, have little if any economic value in the new media world. Prospects are better for smartphone and tablet application usage and, therefore, revenues.

The web “audience,” said Wall Street Journal Digital Network Managing Director Raju Narisetti, is “promiscuous.” Operationally, newspaper publishers, he said, need to think beyond creating good content and on to great digital experiences. “We’ve mastered that, but only with major events like the Olympics. We must start doing it on a daily basis.”

“If you thought the integration of print and online was difficult,” he continued, “try to integrate content and code.” It’s a culture crunch because journalists see content as art and code as just “stuff” while the web geeks in the room take exactly the opposite view. Newspaper ad revenue worldwide has fallen 25% since 2007. Digital ad revenue has risen 45% in the same period yet in 2011 only gave publishers 2.2% of total revenue.

The divide between the content and technology sides, certainly not limited to the newspaper industry, remains. “Journalists are like dogs behind a fence,” said newspaper design specialist Jacek Utko to the WAN IFRA Congress, “barking every time something passes.”

Bridging that divide has brought newspapers into closer proximity to television. Adding live video streams has become de rigueur for newspaper websites, competition from YouTube well understood. Reporters for the UK daily newspaper The Telegraph will soon be getting a “backpack device allowing high quality live video to be sent over 3G networks,” said a Telegraph Media Group (TMG) statement, quoted by pressgazette.co.uk (September 4).

“Now, we can follow developing stories like never before,” explained TMG head of video James Weeks. “The changes we have made to our studio will enable us to augment live video with expert analysis and informed opinion from the finest team of journalists and commentators in the business.”

In a survey of WAN IFRA Congress participants two-thirds (68%) of profitable and three-quarters (74%) of unprofitable publishers said new technologies “create the most opportunities for revenue generation and efficiencies.” The same percentage of profitable publishers said the skills of people in commercial departments helped in bringing in the money while only 54% of the unprofitable publishers said the same. Skills in accounting for both the profitable and unprofitable publishers ranked last, with journalism skills ranking betwixt and between.

Tipping to the trend, the 2013 WAN IFRA Congress will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, the first time in Southeast Asia.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Digital Transitions

Media's transition from analogue to digital has opened opportunities and unleashed challenges beyond the imagination. Media is connected and mobile yet fettered by old rules and new economics. Broadcasters and publishers borrow from the past while inventing whole new services. This ftm Knowledge file explores the changes. 88 pages PDF (March 2012)

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