Fairfax today announced the closure of two regional newspapers and changes for others.
Under the plan, print editions and websites of the Cooma-Monaro Express and the Summit Sun at Jindabyne will be discontinued, The Queanbeyan Age will be relaunched as a free weekly newspaper and the content and distribution of the Braidwood Times will be extended to serve the growing community of Bungendore.
Fairfax also announced the Canberra Times is to be redesigned into a compact format.
None of these moves should surprise newsagents who have been focussed on the future. There is no upside for print newspapers if they remain focused on news as the news is well and truly old by the time the presses start to role the night before we get the products in-store.
While I understand publishers need to promote and in most Australian cities justify production, this is now a rapidly changing space. Whereas publishers were asleep for decades, two or three years ago they started to act and moved on cover price and cut operating costs. It is too little too late in my view. Now, they need to act ahead of the massive wave that is building out in the ocean, so they are not drowned.
Today, we have newspapers that are too thin to justify the higher charge. Ask any newsagent and they will have stories of customers complaining about poor value for money some days.
I think we are close to seeing one or more capital city dailies moving away from seven day production schedules. I don;t want that but paid circulation and falling ad revenue make it inevitable.
We have to run our businesses expecting falling newspaper traffic and revenue otherwise we will be in shock when it stops and wonder what to do, and by then it will be too late.
Today’s announcements by Fairfax are announcements the company needed to make. Our challenge is to respond thoughtfully and appropriately for our own respective futures. Hopefully, many newsagents reading this started acting long ago.
While newspapers remain important to many newsagencies today, business growth can be achieved without them. This is where our attention ought be.
Newsagents need to be chasing new traffic, shoppers who do not come to the business today. This is hard work. It involves you being a retailer and not an agent. This is a fundamental mindset change, but one many have made with terrific success.
From Rucko (moderated) at the home of the birth of Mr D G Bradman ESQ. A town right next to me is now getting 2 of the the Twin Town Clock Newspaper a week as against one for Fairfax, (TTC born just over 1 year ago). Other experience in recent times clearly proves to me that my punters (who are my boss and jolly good people/chaps) will pay a premium price for LOCAL News product (bless their hearts). I hate to say it but the present Fairfax Board has thrown Local to the abyss by taking the L out of Local which is what sells country newspapers.
There are plenty of signs of a rebirth in Local Newspapers. Thank G** and it has been happening for 12 months or more in my area.
My stance changed some time ago from promoting and working hard to stem the decline in newspaper sales to managing the decline. This applies even more so to magazines.
I calculate that if I stopped all magazine and newspaper sales. Profit wise, I would be no worse off if other sales were not affected. The gross profit from magazines and papers only covers their incremental labour cost and make no contribution to net profits.
I could be better off, if the space released resulted in higher gift sales, but this is not guaranteed, there is a cross over between gift and magazine/newspaper sales, total loss of the latter may mean losing some gift purchases.
In 2014 we removed 35% of magazine space and envisage making a similar reduction in 2017. If the publishers forced my hand by dramatic changes to their business model, yes, I would be concerned. But at the same time, I would welcome the event …and bid good riddance to these unprofitable lines.
Colin as long as you have done thorough basket analysis to reach your conclusion. Magazines and papers to drive traffic. This is why actions in-store need to be carefully researched and considered. There are ways to cut overhears without cutting sales or range.
I’m waiting for print to end all together.
Most people I know haven’t bought a paper in years, there’s really no need to anymore.
We read magazines through Zinio and get news online or through apps. I’d be happier if they shifted the money wasted printing papers to developing half decent apps for local news.
Regional publications with a strong local connection are not experiencing the big drop in circulation afflicting the metro ‘papers.
While there is some level of decline, many regional markets can still sell metro ‘papers off the back of a local title, also, the growth in commuting from bigger regional centers into the cities like Melbourne provides some other opportunities, especially with weekday digital/weekend ‘paper subscriptions etc.
Warren Buffet is no idiot. That he is concentrating much of his recent acquisition budget to buying regional titles throughout the US and Canada indicates his “hyper localism” strategy may provide as yet unexplored opportunities in growing markets.
Mike the plumber from Newcastle or Bendigo still needs a cost effective way of advertising to his local community. Radio & TV are still expensive, and his own website covers his digital presence.
My take on this is that Fairfax are ignoring or misunderstanding the possibilities of combining their Metro titles into their bigger Regional ‘papers to give local customers a better product for their $2, cater to the commuter market and provide an increased reach for “National” advertisers that News cannot offer.
There is plenty of research throughout the Australian and international newspaper markets that suggest the average newspaper reader is in their mid to late 40’s. Gives them another 30 to 40 years minimum on the planet. Most industries would be kicking their heels up to know their core customers will still be around for 10 years, let alone 30.
Newspapers, especially in the regions are far from dead. Yes, the look of the business is changing, and there will be casualties. However it is worth keeping in mind, when considering this issue, that you don’t need to travel far from the metro borders before broadband speeds drop dramatically, rendering many of the digital options available to city dwellers utterly useless in the Country.
Taxis, hotels, food retailing are all being “disrupted” which I consider code for “someone came up with a different way of doing things.”
No reason, with a bit of radical thinking, that the news publishing industry cannot be influenced in the same “disruptive” ways. At the moment, the existing major players are still the best placed to take advantage of some innovation. That can change if they let the grass grow under their feet.
How this all affects the retailing of ‘papers is not clear, but I do believe that there would be no reason to sacrifice the regular foot traffic that ‘papers provide to any business where the locals are used to buying their ‘papers.
How much extra sales opportunities that having a loss leading product like ‘papers in your shop provides is probably as different as the types of business and the skill levels of the operators are across the network.
I suspect genuinely local regional papers with genuinely local content (content you dont get on news.com.au, abc.net.au or any of the other online news portals out there and that people outside the local town probably don’t give a stuff about) are going to do better than papers that only have things you can find for free on the internet.
Local papers will fade because the economic model o longer works. Local business have lower cost advertising options, options they can track. With the dramatic fall in ad revenue, publishers cannot afford the editorial team necessary to investigate and write local stories.
How we access news has changed forever. There is no upside in print except for a small number of exceptions.