The media has been awash with stories about the demise of newspapers and the search by traditional media players for workable models to produce quality content and make the Internet pay. The coverage has focused mainly on closures, cutbacks and the dismal prospects for many leading US newspapers. It has also concentrated on what media giants, like Rupert Murdoch, have been saying about the future of media.
He believes that subscription-based services are the way forward. But not everyone is convinced, given the expectation by many users that content on the Web should be free. And there are real fears that among the real beneficiaries will be reputable and free online news providers, such as the BBC.
Johnson Press
But there are signs that the problems are also surfacing closer to home. In the UK, 31 businesses in the print and publishing sector went to the wall in the first three months of the year, according to Deloitte. In Ireland, there were no takers – well none prepared to pay the right price – for the regional newspaper titles owned by Johnson Press. These include established, solid titles such as the Kilkenny People and the Limerick Leader.
Johnson Press’s Irish interests were on the block for a fraction of what the UK publisher had paid for them in a succession of high-price deals during the boom years. It paid €138 million for the Leinster Leader Group, which included the Limerick Leader – and that’s just one part of its Irish operations. But the word is that Johnson failed to reach an asking price of about €50 million for the job lot of all its Irish titles.
Newspaper audiences
Regional newspapers have been solid performers, with strong loyal readership and advertisers. However, the media landscape is rapidly changing, even at a local level. Newspaper audiences, particularly younger audiences, are turning to the Internet for local news, sport and gossip. Advertisers – especially classified advertisers who filled the columns with property, jobs and small notices – are also turning to the Internet.
Statistics are hard to come by in the Irish market, but we know for a fact that traditional classified advertising as a category is under siege in the UK. Data from the Internet Advertising Bureau shows a 17.3% decline in press classifieds last year. Google, and a host of classified sites, have been the primary beneficiaries.
This is just the start of what will be a battle for survival for many traditional media players in the UK, as well
as in Ireland.
