Are print newspapers worth it any more?

I read the print edition  Australian Financial Review cover to cover yesterday for the first time in years, for free, in a hotel lounge in Sydney.

32 pages.

No breaking news – how can there be anyway with such an old production method.

Plenty of PR dressed as analysis.

Odd news too, like the story about the Toppi family and Machiavelli restaurant.

Even the business gossip was tired.

It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good, or valuable – that’s it, it wasn’t valuable.

At the end I had no feeling of $5 of value from the experience. Again, not that I paid for it.

While it’s unfair to consider the future of daily capital city and national newspapers on this one experience, it is the only such recent experience I have.

Back in the day, I’d read newspapers for news – that is, new information that has been rigorously research and fact-checked. I never read newspapers to confirm my own beliefs or biases. I wanted news, discovery.

The AFR yesterday did not provide news. Stories felt more like reinforcement of held views of the intended audience. The whole product felt like a platform of promotion, to a niche audience. I am surprised some people will pay $5 for it.

The AFR yesterday to me did not feel like a newspaper. On some pages it felt more like a lobbying pamphlet.

Certainly in newsagencies, for years, we have seen the value of newspapers to our businesses fade in terms of traffic and margin dollar generation. Those are reasons smart newsagents place newspapers in low cost space rather than the premium value front of store locations they once commanded.

A problem for us with newspapers is the costs of carrying them: retail space, labour in out of date handling practices dictated by the publishers and, theft.

I suspect many newsagents lose money on carrying newspapers.

Reading the AFR yesterday reminded me of the diminishing value of what was once a vital product category for our businesses. We have to be careful to manage the demise of newspapers in our businesses. Newspaper publishers have been doing this for years – making decisions to deliver a soft landing for when they eventually stop print editions. They put their business needs ahead of all else, we should look more critically at this for ourselves.

We know that print newspapers are dead.  The timing of the death of each will depend on the value of them to advertisers, readers and publishers.

There remain some good and valuable print newspapers out there I am sure. If my experience yesterday was anything to go by, the AFR is not one of them. Who am I to judge though – I don’t feel like I am their target audience.