Alan Rusbridger the editor of The Guardian newspaper was interviewed on ABC radio’s PM program last night, talking about the fututure of newspapers and the success (or otherwise) of paywalls. Click here to hear an extended version of this fascinating interview including this quote:
The question is whether you believe that print is going to be that resilient. If you do then, you know, then I’m the last person to be saying that you should be bailing out of print but when you look at the, in Britain and American and most of Europe, you look at the slide in circulation, you just have to question the long-term survivability of print.
Newsagents, distribution and retail, must be thinking about these same issues as they plan for the future.
Alan Rusbridger is coming to Australia later this month to present the Andrew Olle media lecture on November 19th.
Mark,
As a distribution only newsagent, this concerns me greatly. We have been discussing whether we should stay in the industry or leave. One option for us would be to sell up and buy another business, possibly a retail only newsagent.
Mark, I would be interested in your thoughts, should we be selling, and if so how long have we got?
Our thoughts are to wait until after the HWT review in 2 years, as I think people such as ourselves will benefit, possibly at the expense of people with small territories. After that we think we should sell, unless something happens between now and then to fundamentally improve the economic viability of the distribution side of the industry.
Dean,
This is the million dollar question.
The best time to exit a restructuring channel is at the crest of the wave. The challenge is predicting when this is for print. Some experts say we are already past that. Others say it will be in the next couple of years.
If I owned a distribution business I would pay close attention to where Fairfax and News are investing their money and be guided by that.
Having said that, here is what i would do if I currently owned a sizeable run: get bigger but at the lowest cost possible. I’d run a competitive, service-focused operation. I’d also look for other revenue opportunities.
If expansion was a challenge, I’d sell up now.
don’t know about the future of newspapers, but what of the future of Newagencies? Starting Monday 8th November Fairfax are sending 50 copies SMH each day for Gloria Jeans Coffee shop in a small shopping mall with their product in 3 supermarkets and a newsagency. Within 300 metres there are 2 more newsagencies a Seven-Eleven and a Convenience Store all selling Fairfax publications. Could this be saturation? Gloria Jeans don’t want the SMH because they have done it before and they have had to pay for heavy shrinkage. We don’t want it because it is more work for less pay again and again. Is Fairfax fair? Michael.
Today mon 8th Nov we found out as did Gloria Jeans that it is a 4 week promo for purchases of $5 or more FREE SMH costing Gloria 15c. Great communicating Fairfax.
I guess someone must say it, newspapers are dead, not because people do not want them anymore, though numbers are dropping, but because the publishers do not want to pay for them