Respected Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine has written a report titled “DEEP Depressing Dive”. It’s an outlook on the newspaper industry in the US. While I’ve not seen the report there are sobering quotes in stories at MediaPost and Editor & Publisher. We’re at least a couple of years behind the US here in Australia. This is in part due to a strong distribution network (newsagents) and more entrenched consumer habit which harks back to the newsagent network.
Publishers are chasing sales outside the newsagent channel and while I understand that, they stand to gain more by supporting the newsagent channel and therefore reinforcing the newsagent visit as pat of daily life. My contention is that greater focus by publishers on newsagents would achieve more (a sales kick or less of a fall) than chasing petrol outlets and coffee shops where the publisher has less influence over the representation of their brand.