Technological Developments and Economic Changes
Introduction:
The sale of newspaper globally has declined and this decline in sales can be attributed to factors like influence of technology, economic changes, change in interest and rise of social media and citizen journalism. These factors provide readers news ways to access news and received world news without wasting much time. Such technologies and social media platform enables them to maintain fats pace and receive news from credible source too (Bird, 2009). Now, people can get all news on portable devices like smart phones and tablets. However, the quality of news available from different source is criticized as many news may not be true because of revenue issues in advertising (Bruns & Highfield, 2012). In online platform, news are constantly updated and it also provides public the opportunity to voice their opinion related to any event or news. Social media has also become a common source which gives public the opportunity to share news and events as per their interest without extra effort (Berte & DeBens, 2008). Internet or Web 2.0 can be regarded as the major reason for transformation of the way news is received and shared across public. To understand other factor that is leading to decline in newspaper sale, it is necessary to access gap between execution, distribution and ways to access online news (Howe, 2006; Tapscott, 2008; Li & Bernoff, 2008). The main purpose of this report is to analyze the issue of decline in newspaper sales in the world particularly countries like USA, Australia and UK. It also examines whether the decline has occurred due to economic causes or dure change in lifestyle and dependence on social media.
Reviews:
U.SA.
According to the New York Times report, a total of 500, 000 digital subscriptions were received in the year 2016 contributing to rise in subscription by 47%. According audit statement by Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal received more than 150, 000 digital subscription and it leads to arise in subscription by 23%. Another online newspaper source, the Chicago Tribune achieved 76% over-year gain by adding about 1, 00, 000 subscription. This figure for Chicago Tribune was provided by the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), an organization that looks at daily newspaper figures. However, the increase in circulation growth does not translate to growth of the industry. The analysis of Pew Research Center data showed that weekly circulation of both digital and print newSpaper declines by 8% in 2016 and this was not a year phenomenon. Instead, it marked 28th year of decline. The decline for week days circulation was 10% and the decline for weekly digital circulation was 1%. In figures, total weekday circulation for US decreases to 35 million compared to 38 million for total Sunday circulation. The link was that the decline in circulation occurred when double digit decline for advertising revenue occurred. Another research done by Pew Research Center for US newspaper companies explains that decline in advertising revenue in recent years is more alarming evidenced by a 10% decline in 2016 compared to 8% in 2015 (Barthel, 2017).
Another report sums up the total digital subscription for popular news paper. For example, The Wall Street Journal received 1, 50, 000 subscription, the Chicago Tribune added 1, 00, 000 and the New York Times received 5, 00, 000 digital subscription. The decline in print subscription can be attributed not only to rise in digital subscription, but also because of the rise in social media platforms. A report published in the Washington Post explained that social media sites now address traditional questions like what, so what and now what in an innovative manner, thus attracting people’s attention. Facebook, Twitter and Google News offers new and easier ways for the public to see and analyze the ‘what’ of news. News organizers also focus on ‘so what’ and ‘now what’. The reported Chris Cillizza explains that newspaper should critically think of ways to reach the audience and focus on ‘so what’ of news apart from ‘what’ of the news story. ‘What’ of news can be available from many sources, however details on ‘so what’ and ‘now what’ makes the news unique.
Hence, from the above explanation for U.S, it can be said that journalism needs to evolve and transform with time. The New York Times has 2.3 million digital subscribers currently and the Wall Street has 1.27 million digital subscriber. The Washington Post recently achieved the 1 million figures. Other news organization like LA Times and the Star-Tribune are also gradually moving towards 50, 000 digital subscribers goal. Hence, people are interested in news from around the world, however there interest is on receiving these news from different and accessible sources.
Australia
The Daily Telegraph of United Kingdom adopted metered pay wall that allowed some of the free articles for ensuring that the brand is visible in the social media but demanding cash in case of usage in further basis. The daily have started holding back some of the content exclusively for the subscribers by switching tack to a subscription service which is premium.
Another daily, The Guardian has initiated championship at the open model by pinning faith on the global reach by monetization without proper subscription. But it had degrading and creaking finances. The Guardian Media group suffered a loss of £69 m and the nest egg over which it sits, is aiming to disappear on a faster rate than the planned one. The voluntary membership scheme of the group is not enabling the derivation of sufficient returns. Hence the alteration and the switch of directions in the upcoming future seem totally inevitable.
The free model by the London Evening Standards, which tend to give away the paper successfully for the achievement of higher rate of circulation, can further be sold at a higher yield to the advertisers. But be that as it may, what works in one of the world’s most dynamic capital urban communities won’t work all around.
The other dailies and news papers have initiated stepping up their partisanship with the idea and the hope that the impact and the sensationalism will tend to consolidate the notion of their core relationship. Amol Rajan , the media editor of the BBC news in an open interview stated that the British press is biased on industrialized confirmation. He furthermore stated that the echo chambers are not a new concept and they are not at all dependent or confined to the online world of social media. Instead they have been the best examples of business models for the tabloid press for number of decades. But, the rate of circulation for the most rabid tabloids has been falling in a continuous basis in the current scenario.
The niche audience of the nation is generally served with some of the differentiated and distinctive contents by the targeted magazines like the Financial Times. One of the best lessons in this context is that if the readers and the audiences are served with the best and the original contents, they won’t go for any other option and the readers will pay for it. The recipe of the financial times regarding the quality of the content for the group of loyal readers tends to attract premium advertisers to work for them with the context of the virtue of the specialist brief. In the similar context, Tom Standage, the deputy editor of The Economist foresees the chances and the possibility of the super-premium subscription of £400 for his magazine by the year 2050.
Perhaps there lies a major lesson for the local press where the hollowing out of the newspapers and the newsrooms are gaining further momentum. As per the demands of the shareholders the returns are kept up and the one and only answers is to cut the overheads of the editorial.
As per the consequences the local content that are distinctive are disappearing, dropping circulation and entering free fall. Those daily which have adopted the strategy of digital first have also ended up with the trawl social media for the policy for free content which has undermined the print product. Ray Snoddy, the veteran media commentator pointed out in the book about the number of various stories that have been published in some of the local newspapers of Britain has suddenly fallen or dropped by 85 percent and the related revenues have fallen by 82 percept from the peak season as compared to the past few years.
Invest or Die
The founder of the Tindle newspapers, Sir Ray Tindle explained how he is still successful by focusing and concentrating on the most local titles in the context of local news. He owns 220 titles in the south of England and he gave some of the best lessons in the context.
One of the main lessons from the context is that journalism is not a commodity overhead. Journalism is the core purpose of the newspaper. Hence cut your peril. The pop up success of the newspaper, The New European initiate the launch to serve the disenfranchised 48 percent referendum remain voters. Low cost operations and highly targeted journalism can initiate the work. The editor of the New European, Matt Kelly recently stated that the daily, the new European would have disappeared as the online only website. This is because the daily required the physical presence on the news stand to be recognized, identified and talked about.
More traditional remedies are working across the Atlantic. Jeff Bezos, the tech billionaire has initiated transformation of the Washington post since its purchase by investing majorly in the digital operations, staffs which resulted in building on an iconic print title. The sad part is there aren’t as many newspaper magnets like the Bezos in the globe in the current scenario.
In the book by Will Lewis, the chief executive of Dow Jones, a formula has been picked up which illustrates some of the factors like invest in innovation, technological harness, getting over closure of customers, diversified streams of revenues, attraction of the best talents and essentially the reinforcement of the journalism’s civic role for holding the powerful to account and analyze via the power of great rattling or storytelling (Sambrook, 2017).
Some Welsh newspapers observed drop in circulation as much as 28%, according to the recent available figures.
The industry body ABC conformed that the Daily Post is still the most popular newspaper by compiling all the relevant data. But its rate of readers or the readership fall down to 11 percent to sell an average number of 19, 42 copies per edition in the year 2017. One of the major declines in the history of sales had an adverse impact on the Denbigh Herald and Caernarfon. The average circulation plummet was around 28% to 3517 copies.
Furthermore the one of the smallest circulation of the Welsh newspapers is the Gwent Gazette which was audited by the ABC with a average rate of circulation around 1,366 which is about (-17%).
The figures do not usually reflect the development or the growth of the digital publications of various publishers who have initiated investments in the social media, online sites and have successfully scaled back their daily or the newspapers from a long term loss or decline in the rate of readership. The figures for the visitors of the websites ar no longer published for the titles of Trinity Mirror (Thomas, 2018).
Reference Questions:
- Are the print readers declining?
- What are the possible causes in the decline of the newspaper readers?
- What is the impact of the decline in the readership of newspapers on the sales and production of the magazines and the publishing house?
- What are the ways the newspapers should initiate to reach the audience?
References
- Bruns, T. Highfield (2012), Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism Producing Theory in a Digital World: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory, 80, pp. 15-32
Barthel, M. (2017). Despite subscription surges for largest U.S. newspapers, circulation and revenue fall for industry overall. Retreived from:
Berte, K., & De Bens, E. (2008). Newspapers go for advertising. Challenges and opportunities in a changing media environment.Studies, 9(5), 691-704.
Bird, S.E. (2009). The future of journalism in the digital environment. Journalism, 10(3), 293-295
Howe, J. (2008). Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business. New York: Crown
Li, C, &Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Press
Sambrook, Richard. “Stop Press? Last Words on the Future of Newspapers.” The Independent. Last modified February 3, 2017. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/stop-press-last-words-on-the-future-of-newspapers-a7558006.html#gallery.
Thomas, Huw. “Newspaper Circulation Figures Drop.” BBC News. Last modified March 1, 2018. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43246321.
Freer, J. (2007). UK regional and local newspapers. In P. Anderson &c G. Wood (Eds.),The future of journalism in the advanced democracies (pp. 89-103). London: Ashgate
Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital. New York: McGraw Hill. van Uden-Kran, C.E., Taal, E., Shaw, B.R., Seydel, E.R., & van de Laar, M.A. (2008).
Introduction:
There has been a significant decline in the sales of newspapers worldwide and the factors that caused this decline vary from technological developments, economic changes, change in interest or the rise of citizen journalism and social media. This provides several new online platforms for the everyday reader to access his or her news on the go, making it an easy way of maintaining the fast pace of life while also receiving news from credible sources since everything in this time is published with research and facts to back it up (Bird, 2009). People specifically readers can access any publication on their portable devices i.e. tablets, laptops, smartphones and so, on. The quality of the work published by journalists is now being criticized as downgraded with the lack of revenue from advertising as the main reason (Bruns & Highfield, 2012). Along with continuously updated news, the online platforms of the news organizations also provide access to the public to add their voice via the opinion pieces. However, the rise of social media has given the public a platform to share news that is relevant to and interests them and also connect with their friends without navigating or putting any additional efforts for the same (Berte & DeBens, 2008). The development of the internet or Web 2.0 has provided several benefits globally, however, the gap between executing, distributing and accessing news online and the everyday journalist needs to evaluated in order to formulate what is causing a change (Howe, 2006; Tapscott, 2008; Li & Bernoff, 2008). This research sheds light on the decline of newspaper sales across the globe namely in three countries U.S.A, Australia and U.K and the reason behind the need for research in the Middle East. It aims to look at whether this decline came about just due to the economic reasons or was it due to the lifestyle changes and higher dependency of people on social media.
(Freer, 2007).
Review: This is all copy pasted from different sources.
U.S.A. There has been a gradual
Yearly financial statements show that The New York Times added more than 500,000 digital subscriptions in 2016 – a 47% year-over-year rise. The Wall Street Journal added more than 150,000 digital subscriptions, a 23% rise, according to audited statements produced by Dow Jones. And the Chicago Tribune added about 100,000 in weekday digital circulation, a 76% year-over-year gain, according to its filings with the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM), an organization that verifies many daily newspapers’ circulation figures. But these gains did not translate into circulation growth for the industry overall. A Pew Research Center analysis of data from AAM shows that total weekday circulation for U.S. daily newspapers – both print and digital – fell 8% in 2016, marking the 28th consecutive year of declines. (Sunday circulation also fell 8%.) The overall decline includes a 10% decrease in weekday print circulation (9% for Sundays) and a 1% decline in weekday digital circulation (1% rise for Sundays). Total weekday circulation for U.S. daily newspapers fell to 35 million, while total Sunday circulation declined to 38 million – the lowest levels since 1945. This overall decline in circulation coincided with a double-digit decline in advertising revenue for the industry as a whole. A separate Pew Research Center analysis based on the year-end financial statements of seven publicly traded U.S. newspaper companies suggests that advertising revenue across the industry declined even more sharply than in recent years: a 10% decline, which outpaces the 8% decline in 2015.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/01/circulation-and-revenue-fall-for-newspaper-industry/
In 2016 alone, The New York Times added more than 500,000 digital subscriptions, The Wall Street Journal added 150,000 and The Chicago Tribune added 100,000.Digital subscriptions are not the only thing that has affected the decline of print subscriptions; social media has as well. As Chris Cillizza, a Washington Postreporter suggested, the traditional “what,” “so what” and “now what” questions are being answered differently. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, along with Google News, offer people an easier way to see the “what” of news. The “so what” and the “now what” are now more important than ever for the news organizations. Cillizza argues that newspapers need to focus on how to reach audiences with the “now what” and the “so what,” instead of focusing on the “what” of the story. Readers can find that bit of news anywhere, but to get a detailed analysis of the other two segments is what can keep journalism relevant.
Journalism needs to evolve just like everything else is. The New York Times has more than 2.3 million digital subscribers, which leads all news organizations, according to Forbes. The Wall Street Journal has 1.27 million digital subscribers and The Washington Post has recently cleared the 1 million hurdle. Other regional news organizations like the LA Times, Boston Globe and the Star-Tribune all have over 50,000 digital subscribers. People are still consuming the news, just with a different medium.
Australia
United Kingdom The Daily Telegraph opted for the “metered paywall” – allowing some free articles to ensure the brand is visible online but demanding payment for further use. The Telegraph have now switched tack to a premium subscription service – holding back some content for subscribers only.
The Guardian has championed the open model – pinning faith on global reach eventually being monetised without subscription. But its finances are creaking – the Guardian Media Group made a £69m loss last year and the nest egg it sits on is disappearing faster than planned. The group’s voluntary membership scheme is not delivering sufficient returns – a switch of direction seems inevitable in the near future.
Then there’s the free model, led by London Evening Standard, which successfully gives the paper away to achieve high circulation which can then be sold to advertisers at a higher yield. But what works in one of the world’s most vibrant capital cities won’t work everywhere.
Other papers have stepped up their partisanship in the hope that sensationalism and impact will consolidate their core readership. As the BBC’s media editor, Amol Rajan, recently commented, in many ways the British press is industrialised confirmation bias. They ensure their journalism confirms their readers’ political bias. “Echo chambers” aren’t new or confined to social media – they have been the business model for the tabloid press for decades. However, circulation for even the most rabid tabloids continues to fall.
Some – like the Financial Times or targeted magazines – are able to serve a niche audience with distinctive, differentiated content. The lesson is if you serve your readers well enough with something original they can’t get elsewhere, they will pay for it. The FT’s recipe of quality content for a group of loyal readers who can attract premium advertisers again works for them – by virtue of their specialist brief. Similarly, The Economist’s deputy editor Tom Standage foresees in the book the possibility of a super-premium £400 subscription for his magazine by 2050.
Perhaps there is a lesson here for the local press, where the hollowing out of newsrooms and newspapers is gaining momentum. As shareholders demand the returns are kept up, the only answer is to cut editorial overheads.
As a consequence distinctive local content is disappearing, circulation dropping and some entering free fall. Those that have adopted a “digital-first” strategy have too often ended up with a “trawl social media for free content” policy that has undermined the print product. As veteran media commentator Ray Snoddy points out in the book, the number of stories in some of Britain’s local newspapers has fallen by 85 per cent and revenues by 82 per cent from their peak in past years.
Invest or die
Set against this, Sir Ray Tindle, the founder of Tindle Newspapers, which owns 220 titles in the south of England, says he’s still successful by concentrating on the most local of titles with very local news. If there’s a lesson here, it’s that journalism is not a commodity overhead – its the core purpose of a newspaper, so cut at your peril. And the pop-up newspaper success of the year, The New European, launched to serve the disenfranchised 48 per cent referendum Remain voters, perhaps offers another example. Highly targeted journalism and low-cost operations can work. As its editor Matt Kelly recently told me, The New European would have disappeared as an online-only site. It needed the physical presence on news stands to be noticed, picked up and talked about.
Across the Atlantic more traditional remedies are working. Tech billionaire Jeff Bezos has transformed The Washington Post since purchasing it with major investment in staff and digital operations, building on an iconic print title. Unfortunately, there aren’t many new newspaper magnates like Bezos in the world.
But it points to a formula picked up in the book by Will Lewis, chief executive of Dow Jones: invest in innovation, harness technology rather than be led by it, get ever closer to customers, diversify revenue streams, attract the best talent you can and – crucially – reinforce journalism’s civic role: holding the powerful to account through the power of great storytelling.
Some Welsh newspapers saw circulations drop by as much as 28%, according to the latest available figures.
Data compiled by industry body ABC confirmed the Daily Post remains Wales’s most popular newspaper.
However, its readership slipped 11% to sell an average of 19,842 copies per edition in 2017.
The biggest decline in sales affected the Caernarfon and Denbigh Herald. It saw its average circulation plummet 28% to 3,517 copies.
The Gwent Gazette has the smallest circulation of the Welsh newspapers audited by ABC, with an average circulation of 1,366 (-17%).
The figures do not reflect the growth of the digital operations of many publishers, who have invested in online sites and scaled back their newspapers in the face of a long-term decline in readership.
The figures for website visitors are no longer published for Trinity Mirror titles.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43246321
References:
- Berte, K., & De Bens, E. (2008). Newspapers go for advertising. Challenges and opportunities in a changing media environment.Studies, 9(5), 691-704.
- Bird, S.E. (2009). The future of journalism in the digital environment. Journalism, 10(3), 293-295
- Bruns, T. Highfield (2012), Blogs, Twitter, and breaking news: The produsage of citizen journalism Producing Theory in a Digital World: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory, 80, pp. 15-32
- Li, C, & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Press
- Howe, J. (2008). Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business. New York: Crown
- Freer, J. (2007). UK regional and local newspapers. In P. Anderson &c G. Wood (Eds.),The future of journalism in the advanced democracies (pp. 89-103). London: Ashgate
- Tapscott, D. (2008). Grown up digital. New York: McGraw Hill. van Uden-Kran, C.E., Taal, E., Shaw, B.R., Seydel, E.R., & van de Laar, M.A. (2008).
