Media News

There is no doubt the print industry is facing some serious challenges to its future and combined with the economic downturn 2009 has been a very tough year in press. We saw the closure of thelondonpaper in August 2009 and many rumours of the closure of the Independent. There have been several local press closures, particularly from Trinity Mirror, and at the end of August 2009 publisher Johnston Press denied reports it is to sell The Scotsman to a consortium of Scottish businessmen.

Those publishing houses with regional and local press titles within their portfolio, Trinity Mirror (inc AMRA Scotland), Johnston Press, DC Thomson and Newsquest DC Thomson have been reporting advertising revenue declines of up to 40%, much of this down to the decline of the traditional classified platforms, namely property, motors and recruitment, which have suffered far more than the display advertising market. Some groups are responding to this situation more proactively than others.

As publishing houses look at how they can make savings there will inevitably be some more casualties along the way. To protect their yield print publishers have the flexibility to reduce their issue sizes when the market is soft. Not only does this save on paper stock but it also means that when the market improves that rates have not been markedly driven down. On the positive side we have seen an increase in flexibility and creativity e.g. The Daily Express was the first national newspaper to introduce cover wrapping earlier this year. Feather Brooksbank have placed some unusual creative formats on behalf of our clients which previously we may have struggled to get editorial approval for eg U shapes, reverse L’s and towers.   

Scotland in 2008 saw unprecedented declines in circulation across the Scottish press. Looking at the first 6 months of 2009 all circulations in Scotland have declined yoy with the exception of the News of the World, Daily/Sunday Telegraph and Daily Star. The News of the World and the Daily Star both had cover price cuts and the Telegraph’s success can be attributed to their coverage of the MP’s expenses scandal. The Sunday Herald, Daily Record and Sunday Mail are showing an accelerated rate of decline since the same period last year. However, on a positive note, we can see that the Scotsman, Scotland On Sunday, Herald, Scottish Sun and Sunday Post have all slightly stemmed the acceleration of decline over the same period in 2008. The Sun’s circulation is still steadily ahead of the Record  and the new battle is now between the News of the World and the Sunday Mail. The Sunday Times Scotland remains the highest circulating quality in Scotland, ahead of the Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday. 

And what is the outlook for press in 2010? The print media landscape is continually changing and we are witnessing a dramatic change in the way that consumers are interacting with information. Consumers now have multiple sources including traditional media, blogs, Twitter etc. The blogosphere is now so powerful that newspapers and magazines are becoming reliant on it for their own content. It is inevitable that the relationship between the two will become more symbiotic in future. The focus area of investment for all continues to be their online platforms and we are starting to see more opportunities arise for integrated campaigns. The national titles have always been ahead of the game and with geo targeting technology it is more important than ever for the Scottish titles to catch up.

There is no doubt that conventional print is facing pressures with advertising income being squeezed and intense competition from free content strikes at its revenue stream. So where are the opportunities? Charging consumers for online content is very topical at the moment. Rupert Murdoch has been very vocal on this issue saying that “quality journalism is not cheap” and that “we intend to charge for all our news websites”.  Whether users of Scottish indigenous newspaper websites will be prepared to pay for online content remains to be seen.

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