It's been a interesting couple of weeks in the world of Newspapers ...
In general, newspapers sales are declining, which should come as no surprise given most of us are able to access news (free), as soon as it happens through the internet, mobile devices, TV & radio. 'News', by the time it reaches the print stage, is already ‘old news’.
Having dragged their heels for the first few years, Newspapers are now more involved in digital strategies - key to their survival. Last week, Rupert Murdoch's controversial paywall scheme for 'The Times' launched (apparently not faring too well with a 90% drop in readers). Meanwhile, the FT have just posted £30m profits thanks to their digital gains, while The Guardian is at £34m loss.
Bizarrely, these papers are now seeing their vacant time slots at the printers being filled by exciting new takes on the medium. (In the UK Newspaper Club literally fill in the down time on printing presses to create sets of varied independent titles).
This week, look out for Monocle magazine's new 'Mediterraneo' - an experimental newspaper available on European beaches throughout summer . Already there's talk from founder Tyler Brulee of further issues. (check out interview on Jeremy Leslie's MagCulture). Uncoated stock paper integrated into mags has been a trend in mainstream titles for a while now (see Esquire), but to see an upmarket glossy title go completely 'newspaper' is a bold move.
Also this week, this story caught my eye. In France 'Mon Quotidien' (or My Daily) is a newspaper targeted at children and (digitally savvy) teens, collaborating with their young readers on its content. Knowing your audience is key to publishing and in this case, enlisting users to help produce it, is seeing the publication shift an impressive 60,000 copies a day.
The Newspaper format is fantastic medium which, by being both cheap to produced wonderfully tactile, has been exploited for a while by independent publishers such as New Zealand's Pie Paper. (Incidently Pie have recently opted for the broadsheet format. The very format mainstream papers ditched a few years back in favour of tabloid or berliner).
There's often talk of 'is the internet killing print?', and sure, some titles have suffered and even perished now that awesome, new digital offerings exist. However, it's a lack of innovation and on the publishers part which is killing print - not the digital alternatives alone. Print publishers got lazy and grew weak, while digital stirred imaginations and found new ways to communicate with their audiences. It's basic Darwinian law - Only the strongest survive.
It's exciting to watch the new wave of publishers embrace the medium and re-imagine its use. This in turn will alter readers perceptions and behaviours, along with perception of the medium in the marketplace.
But as the staff at 'Mon Quotidien' will know (and their junior helpers!), ultimately - be it digital or print, content is king.
