This data from the Reuters Institute is stark. The pandemic has made printed newspapers a minor source of news, most people get their news online or from television. More than twice as many people get their news via the likes of Twitter and Facebook as from newspapers. So who is really mainstream now?
Guido has been calling newspapers the Dead Tree Press for over a decade. The situation for many national newspapers is dire, year after year of double-digit falling newsstand sales, disappearing local newspapers unable to compete with ultra-local advertising solutions from the tech-media giants which are objectively better than they can provide. All exacerbated and undercut by unfair competition from the BBC’s monolithic, monocultural empire of local websites and radio stations. The print editions are in a death spiral…
How is the Dead Tree Press coping? They have suspended ABC audited circulation reporting, the transparency* newspapers always call for, is for other people. Not publishing their circulation figures is like not publishing their obituaries. They are still dying.
When the Spectator announced last week that they were returning their furloughing cash to the Treasury after a financially successful lockdown, Guido readers were the first to also hear plans afoot by the Telegraph to follow suit. The paper has today officially announced they will be returning the taxpayer cash after a “very strong subscription performance” during the pandemic. With a 200% subscription skyrocket in March alone…
Guido observed last week that outlets on the right, himself included, seem to have ridden out Coronavirus and the lockdown fairly successfully. It still remains to be seen whether any of the left-wing press will be returning taxpayers’ money to the Treasury…
Some hacks got very upset a few weeks ago when a Sky/YouGov poll showed how just how low they are rated in the public’s esteem, they jumped on any poll which showed they were not entirely unloved. The trend is not the media’s friend, YouGov has been tracking attitudes to coronavirus in Britain since lockdown began on 23 March. The public initially tended to think the quality of media coverage of the coronavirus crisis was good, with 41% saying so compared to 27% who thought it was bad.
Then as they watched the evening Downing Street press conferences, sentiment started to decline, with crossover taking place on 11 Apr when 34% of people said the quality was good and 35% bad. This will be no surprise to anyone who has attended to Lobby briefings…
The view of the media has steadily got worse and by the time of the most recent tracker the proportion of the public saying the quality of media coverage has been bad has reached 48%. Just 23% now think the media are doing a good job.
To combat the prevailing “narrative of decline” monthly circulation ABC audits tended to highlight, the dead tree press have come up with the cunning idea of no longer allowing ABC to publicly report their circulations. The Telegraph Media group has pulled out of ABC altogether. These are the same people who complain about a lack of transparency from others…
The launch of The Athletic is yet another nail in the coffin of the dead tree press. 55 sports journalists have been lured over to the £4.99-a-month sports specialist. Many newspaper readers primarily want sports reporting and skip straight to the back of the paper. Now they can skip the paper entirely…
Will it work? Guido expects it will. The bundled approach to news where readers get a bit of everything doesn’t make sense. Half the product is ignored. Some will say that the joy of a newspaper is serendipity, the noticing of a headline that takes the reader in a new direction. Critics argue specialist publications increase our filter bubble making us shallower and narrower in our knowledge. The fact is people generally want to know a lot about the few things that interest them and little about the things that interest them. Love Island doesn’t appeal to everyone…
The Athletic is boasting that it will do quality local sports reporting, something that BBC local radio is killing off. That it will be advertising free because of the revenue from the subscription service. Something the BBC could learn from…
The no comment gambit has not satisfied the headline writers. Boris and Carrie are the political equivalent of Burton and Taylor, the mystique will only drive more speculation. Can’t see this approach lasting a month…
After her ill-judged speech the reaction is bad. When the Tory press, including the usually May-supporting Daily Mail, is entirely negative, the game is up. Soon…
