MEDIA & MARKETING:The challenge facing broadsheets is how to attract and hold on to valuable younger readers, writes SIOBHÁN O'CONNELL
THE LATEST newspaper readership survey may prompt some soul-searching among publishers of broadsheet newspapers.
The JNRS data, compiled by Lansdowne Market Research, shows that fewer 25-44-year-olds are reading broadsheet titles while more people in this demographic are reading tabloids.
Since the advent of the internet, newspaper readership generally has been on the slide and this trend shows no sign of abating. According to JNRS, 80 per cent of Irish adults now read a national newspaper (daily and Sunday) compared to 88 per cent in 2007.
Most of that decline is due to fewer people reading newspapers at weekends. Fifty-eight per cent of the adult population read a daily last year, the same as five years previously. But in that period, the proportion of the adult population reading a Sunday has fallen from 79 per cent to 71 per cent. The JNRS data also shows a substantial fall in Saturday magazine readerships, in particular across the broadsheets.
One notable trend in JNRS 2008 is that while the broadsheets are losing younger readers, the tabloids are gaining readers in the 25-44 demographic. Tabloid titles don’t put much content online. For example, log on to www.thestar.ie and all you get is an advert for a horse racing club.
Could it be that the upmarket broadsheets are shooting themselves in the foot with their online replica versions of their printed product?
David Hayes, managing director of Mediaedge:CIA, notes that young adults have grown up used to getting information they want online. “There will always be a role for newspapers but now the online versions are complete replicas of the offline versions. The Irish tabloids whose 25-44 year old readership is increasing provide little or no online content.”
David Tallon, commercial director of advertising agency Initiative Media, said: “Digital access to news stories is instant and all of the broadsheet titles now have established online versions of their printed products. These are growing at an exceptionally rapid pace, in some instances trebling their visitors since 2006. People with web access at work surf various news sites throughout their working day. With the rise and rise of blogging, opinions and points of view are also very prevalent on the web. So perhaps people are looking for a lighter read in print.”
Newspapers in Ireland and around the world now attract massive audiences on their websites. However, the advertising revenue hasn’t followed to the same degree, partly due to Google and specialised websites siphoning off classified advertising spend.
Though the debate hasn't started in Ireland yet, in America newspaper publishers are again focusing on the merits of charging for online content. The Wall Street Journalis the only major daily which has managed to make readers pay to read online. That model is now being studied at other News Corporation owned titles, including the Timesand Sunday Times.
Ann Moore, chief executive of Time, is also having a hard look at charging for the magazine's content online. Interviewed in the Daily Telegraph, Moore argues: "Who started this rumour that all information should be free, and why didn't we challenge this when it first came out? I say this in college classrooms and they start to throw their shoes at me. I say, 'kids, your food is not free and your cars are not free, your clothes are not free. Good information costs money. Someone has to pay for the Baghdad bureau'. "
Ironically, the cheerleaders for free online content are very often newspaper columnists. When Eircom announced that it was going to co-operate with record companies in cracking down on illegal file sharing, the technorati columnists expressed outrage in a predictable cacophony.
Whatever about the internet factor, the evidence suggests that if newspapers are to have a future, they may have to dumb down content to some extent for their audience. The Irish Daily Staris now read by 17 per cent of 15-34-year-olds, which is equal to the combined readership of The Irish Independentand The Irish Timesin that age group.
