ABCs: Double digit declines for newspapers
Most of Australia’s major metro mastheads have once again posted double digits declines in the last round of print circulation figures.
According to figures released today by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, Fairfax Media’s The Age posted the largest metro year-on-year circulation fall recording a 17 per cent decline on weekdays with the newspaper falling from 157,480 copies to 130,767.
Sister Fairfax newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald also posted a 16.60 per cent decline with its print circulation numbers hitting 131,737 in the last quarter of 2013.
Amongst the News Corp Australia stable many of its newspapers also posted double digit declines with tabloids The Daily Telegraph and Herald Sun posting weekday declines of 12 per cent and 12.3 per cent respectively. The Telegraph had a weekday circulation of 293,512 last quarter while its Victorian counterpart had 394,597.
Other News Corp weekday newspapers papers posted smaller declines of 10 per cent for the Courier Mail, 9.4 per cent for the Adelaide Advertiser, and 8.5 per cent for Tasmania’s Mercury.
Both major newspapers have today sought to put a positive spin on the continuing declines. Fairfax Media noted how it had removed unprofitable circulation and was seeing an improvement in revenue and yield per copy for their metro mastheads.
“We continue to lead industry change by focusing on profitable circulation, further reducing unprofitable bulk channels and in turn, increasing both our circulation revenue and yield per copy for our metropolitan mastheads,” said Allen Williams, managing director of Fairfax Media’s Australian Publishing Media in an statement. “As a result, our print circulation is more profitable than ever, and that, combined with our fiercely independent journalism and content, ensure that the print editions of our mastheads continue to contribute to the growth and engagement of our audience.”
While News Corp chose to focus on the mass audience reached by its newspapers nationally. “Overall, News Corp Australia sells almost 10 million newspapers a week – affirming our position as the country’s number one media company,” said Julian Clarke, CEO of News Corp Australia. “Our daily metropolitan titles such as The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail and The Advertiser, lead their respective states in paid sales. This demonstrates the deep connections our titles have developed with their audiences.”
Seven West Media’s West Australian posted the smallest decline among Australia’s major newspaper publisher of just 5.5 per cent in its weekday circulation.
Among the weekend newspapers both Fairfax and News Corp saw continuing significant falls in the circulations for once lucrative mastheads. In NSW, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sat) and its counterpart the Sun Herald posted 16.3 per cent falls 15.6 per cent respectively. While its rival The Daily Telegraph (Sat) fell 10.6 per cent and the Sunday Telegraph fell 12.4 per cent.
In Victoria, it was a similar story with The Age (Sat) falling 14 per cent and its Sunday sister publication falling 14.10 per cent. While the Herald Sun (Sat) posted an 11.10 per cent fall and Sunday Herald Sun 11.90 per cent. News Corp’s other newspapers such as Queensland faired marginally better with the like Courier Mail posting 9.8 per cent and 9.1 declines in its weekend newspapers.
Among the national newspapers The Australian’s weekday circulation fell 8.3 per cent and 9.2 per cent on weekends. The News Corp broadsheet has a weekday circulation of 112,269 while the weekend edition has 242,158.
Business newspaper The Australian Financial Review fell only 6.4 per cent on weekdays to 62,455 and 9.2 per cent on weekends to 71,733.
Weekday metro titles, from largest percentage fall:
Weekend metro titles, from largest percentage fall:
National newspapers, highest circulation to lowest:
Nic Christensen
You can see the jaws of death in these numbers. The absolute collapse of the print products, which remain the cost centres of these businesses, is harrowing. The relatively miserable revenue conversion of digital product in now way compensates, no matter how much spin is imposed.
News Corp’s results showed how little they are extracting from these big reach numbers and one can only assume that Murdoch’s strategy is simply to be the last one standing in Australian news media.
Fairfax metro titles are showing the signs of a strategy that ratchets revenue falls into cost reductions, layer by layer. The products are now in free fall, giving them no leverage for pricing digital. Their results next week will be interesting, but only to morbid onlookers.
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Yeah, the business models have collapsed etc etc …. but do you reckon the dinosaur media outfits have thought about doing anything, you know, different?
Like cleaning out their newsrooms, hiring a few good writers, some decent editors and aiming to bring out daily magazines with, admittedly, lower circulations but desireable demographics and premium rates.
If you owned a Toorak Road shop, would you advertise in The Age, now written by and for kids who live in share houses, eat bean sprouts and think polar bears are doomed?
If current Age readers came into your shop you’d throw them out ASAP.
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@back bencher: the problem is at the top. How many of the people running the show have ever had any relationship with readers? Clarke is a nice guy, but comes from the Leader group, then HWT, then News as a solid guy in uncontested space. He has people like Mitchell (who loves to refer to “his” newspaper, clone Whittaker and boors like Clegg in key jobs). Hywood spent his entire career almost in cushy foreign postings or Canberra. His efforts running newspapers after that were all backward-facing. He has Catalano – his best buddy who is solely interested in his bank account – and Allen Williams (nil experience editorial and an exec career limited to Rural Press) running the big brands.
It’s all about who sets the priorities.
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Reddit would like to thank everyone in print media.
Perhaps some roses and chocolates would be appropriate on this Valentine’s Day massacre.
Reddit allows readers to set their own agendas, rather than have agendas thrust upon them.
Reddit’s motto; The Front Page of the Internet.
It used to be different, but it was still a newsy one…
http://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/djm1m/
One can appreciate the casual style of the conversation with customers. Newspapers tend to be haughtier and better spoken.
So perhaps it’s not just the content and the medium (paper), but the language spoken.
Anyhow, best of luck on this front page newspaper story.
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newspapers are terrible because they have no money to print good journalism, and they have no money to print good journalism because nobody buys the papers, and nobody buys the papers because newspapers are terrible, because…
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Could you please publish what the numbers are for the Gold Coast Bulletin?
Would love to know.
Also, what about the other major adjacent metro papers such as Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong?
Thanks in advance.
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