Tag Archives: print

The Big Issue goes digital and Fairfax reveals paywall pricing

by ON
Reply

The Big Issue is going digital, launching a digital version of its print magazine from tomorrow, while Fairfax has revealed details of its digital subscription packages for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.

Customers will be able to buy online access to The Big Issue from vendors in the form of a digital access card that will be sold alongside print copies.

The Big Issue CEO Steven Persson says the digital edition would not replace the magazine, but instead give people a choice in how they read it.

“We recognise that an increasing number of people now prefer to read magazines online,” Persson says. “By offering a digital version, we hope to meet the needs of customers and reach out to new audiences to help increase sales for vendors.”

The Big Issue in Australia will be among the first ‘street papers’ in the world to offer a digital edition, with the UK’s The Big Issue in the North launching an online edition last October.

The digital edition will have the same content as the fortnightly print edition and the will vendors continuing to earn $3 from every sale.

 

Fairfax Media has today announced that digital subscriptions for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age across Australia, New Zealand and other Asia-Pacific countries will commence from 2 July 2013.

The announcement follows the successful overseas launch of digital subscriptions across North America, Europe and the Middle East in March this year.

Digital subscriptions for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites and m-sites will operate as a meter model, allowing free access to 30 articles a month. The tablet apps will use a freemium model, which means certain sections will be free, with others will only accessible to paying subscribers.

“The introduction of digital subscriptions for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age websites, m-sites and tablet apps is the single most significant development to our digital strategy since Fairfax Media began producing digital content and products. It is an important step in our strategy as it provides our business with additional revenue streams,” says managing director, Australian Publishing Media, Allen Williams.

“Fairfax Media has invested a considerable amount of time researching audience-centric digital subscription models. Our approach is simple; visitors will be able to continue to enjoy our content just as they do now, with minimal disruption, and subscribers will have access to a higher level of content plus additional benefits,” he says.

 

B2B Big Plays: gimmicks, Google blimps and exceptional corporate speak

by ON
Reply

B2B Big Plays features news and events from the planet, and is proudly delivered twice a month by B2B Marketer, Australia’s largest B2B marketing group.

Waste a heap of time and win £200

UK – Ashamed to say, but I’m contributing to the shameless promotion of an app for an online printing company – Solopress. But hey, full marks for these guys trying to inspire some competitive spirit and communicate their core value in a new way.

Am I getting too old and grumpy, thinking that the real target audience might not care? The YouTube video has a disappointing 77 views since May 29.

Pointless gimmick or not – feedback please!

VW gets personal with light commercial customers

EU – Cue music, “You got a friend…” Thanks to your local VW Service Centre, who will drop everything to help you keep on the road (and in business).

Based on a series of testimonials from people with no guns to their heads, the campaign is a multichannel strategy created by adam&eveDDB. It will run across OOH, print, radio, point-of-sale, DM and social media.

Is it a bird, a plane!? No, it’s a Google blimp

South Africa – Imagine a wireless network stretching for hundreds of square kilometers, and it’s all happening at high altitudes. Google is running trials in Cape Town to test balloons and Blimps to deliver wireless communications to eventually connect a billion people (cannot say these guys think small – ever!)

Ultra low frequencies can travel massive distances high in the sky, and enables an eco-system of cheap Android handphones to get people talking. Read all about it here.

$390 million deal delivers exceptional corporate speak

NewYork – Can someone translate the following please, “Through Global Technology Solutions, Nasdaq OMX will redefine technology as a source of competitive advantage for our clients.” That beauty was delivered by Anna Ewing, in reference to the Nasdaq OMX Group acquiring Thomson Reuters Investor Relations, Public Relations and Multimedia Solutions.

A fair amount of coin was exchanged for the purchase, which will be rolled into Nasdaq OMX’s Global Technology Solutions. We all wish Anna the very best in doing whatever it is that needs to be done.

Shock! Gasp! Content influences B2B buyers

Pala Alto, Calif. – The CMO Council produced a study, “Better Lead Yield in the Content Marketing Field” from an online survey of 400 B2B buyers. 87% of them admitted that online content has either a major or moderate impact on vendor preference and selection.

The stuff buyers like include: association research reports, industry group research, customer case studies and product reviews.

Bauer and Top Tourist Parks finalise multimillion-dollar deal

by ON
Reply

Bauer Media Group and Top Tourist Parks today finalised a multimillion-dollar, two-year media partnership that is aimed at driving the park group’s strategic marketing objectives.

The new campaign is set to launch in September and draws on research from Roy Morgan and BDO that identified key segments of Top Tourist Parks’ target audience.

“Our research not only highlighted the types of people who currently use cabins, but also the fact that the cabin users of tomorrow are more likely to be camping now, rather than caravanning,” says Grant Manson, the sales director for CDMedia, Bauer’s media agency.

“The range of Bauer brands taking part will see this campaign reach in excess of nine million Australians, including 20% of the existing cabin market. On top of that, the Bauer activity will provide Top Tourist Parks with unprecedented visibility among the target family audience,” he says.

Bauer Trader Media chief executive, Keith Falconer adds, “We have had a strong relationship with Top Tourist Parks for many years, and this marks a new phase in our partnership.

“The marketplace continues to evolve and the board of Top Tourist Parks have again demonstrated their vision by investing in media assets that will allow them to meet the ever changing needs of key stakeholders, consumers and the parks themselves,” he says.

The campaign will run across Bauer Media’s titles including The Australian Women’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, Take 5 and Australian House & Garden, as well as the highly targeted audiences attracted to the Discover Downunder TV program – airing on the Nine Network and WIN – and the program’s website, Australian Geographic, Caravan World and Camper Trailer Australia.

“Developing the cross-platform deal incorporating print and digital across the Bauer network and TV was fundamental in delivering a campaign that can be measured against Top Tourist Parks’ objectives,” Falconer says.

The campaign creative will feature an advertorial series, designed by Bauer Media, which will run across all the target titles from September and culminate in an eight-page booklet within The Australian Women’s Weekly.

Top Tourist Parks has also signed up as the Park Partner for the 2014 series of Discover Downunder and will continue its tactical investment with key Bauer Trader brands including Caravan World (including Year Book), Camper Trailer Australia and Turu.com.au.

 

Audi launches new campaign for A3 Sportsback

by ON
Reply

Audi Australia have launched a new campaign for their new A3 Sportback with VIVID Sydney.

The ad campaign includes national TV, cinema, lift ‘wraps’, radio, OOH, print and digital executions, while artistic interpretations of the A3 will be projected onto the back of the historic George Street warehouses during the Vivid Ideas festival in Sydney.

The projections will be visible to people walking between Camp Cove to the Museum of Contemporary Arts at The Rocks.

“The locally developed headline ‘Ahead of its class’ is a confident statement on the positioning of both the Audi A3, paying homage to our launch and continued development of the premium compact segment, and also to the Audi brand ethos – Vorsprung durch Technik,” says Audi general marketing manager, Kevin Goult.

“This campaign also sees us making the most of the largest out-of-home buy the company has ever purchased, with eye-catching billboards and clever media placements like our elevator wraps and consecutive street panels that allow us to promote the high level of quality on both the car’s exterior and interior, and standard features like leather upholstery, automatic climate control and multi media interface with touchpad, a full colour slimline pop-up screen and integrated radio,” Goult says.

The A3 has more than 2.7 million customers worldwide since it launched in 2007 and almost 18,000 Australian customers have owned the A3 since it was first launched.

Magazine revival: more gain readers than lose in trend reversal

by ON
Reply

In a reversal of prevailing trends more magazines posted gains in readership than posted declines in the December quarter, with overall readership of print titles up 1.7% year on year.

Roy Morgan’s readership figures show 71 magazines posted increases while 59 decreased, with strong performances from women’s fashion, home and garden, food and entertainment, computer and gaming, and health and family categories.

Women’s fashion experienced the strongest growth, up 10.9%, buoyed by increases from Morrison Media’s Frankie (+29.6%), Bauer’s Harper’s Bazaar (+9.3%) and Pacific Magazine’s Marie Claire (+8.6%).

Computer and gaming titles grew by 7.6%, with gangbusting performances from Next Media’s Hyper, up 83.3%, and Citrus Media’s Game Informer, up 40.0%.

Women’s lifestyle, women’s youth and mass women’s categories did not prove as resilient to changing consumer behaviour as their fashion counterpart, dropping 7.9%, 6.5% and 3.1% of readers respectively.

While Bauer’s Women’s Weekly remained the most read title, with over two million readers per issue, it dropped 8.8% of readers over the current period.

Men’s lifestyle titles staged somewhat of a comeback over the quarter, boosted by strong gains from NewLifeMedia’s GQ (+24.4%), Odysseus’ Men’s Fitness (+39.8%), Inside Sport (+20.0%) and Men’s Health (+7.7%). General men’s titles, Picture and People did not fare so well, taking 23.8% and 12.3% hits respectively.

The readership spikes experienced by a number of key categories show magazines continue to engage readers in both print and digital formats, according to executive director of Magazine Publishers of Australia’s, Robin Parkes.

“Like most media, magazine audiences are consuming our content across different platforms – be it print, web, mobile or tablet and that migration is reflected in sales and readership figures,” Parkes says. “Printed magazines however remain in robust health with 13.5 million copies of magazines sold in Australia every month.”

Roy Morgan’s combined print and digital readership figures show magazines lag behind newspapers in converting their audiences to digital consumption. The majority of magazine titles have only a small portion of their overall audiences that consumer content via digital means, while most newspaper titles have moved towards 50% of their readers consuming via digital devices.

The notable exceptions to this in the magazine space are Vogue, with 54% of its readership consuming content online only, Burke’s Backyard, with a 49% digital only share, and Cleo, with 37% of its audience digital only.

Managing director of NewsLifeMedia, Nicole Sheffield, says digital is a focus as the publishers seeks to grow audiences by “delivering customers top quality, innovative and trusted content where ever they are spending their time”.

“All of our titles are available in the Zinio newsstand, the tablet platform is attracting new readers to our brands and we are bringing our advertising partners along with us for the journey and additional exposure.”

 

End of an era, start of a new one – how print media will evolve in 2013

by ON
1

Newsweek, the venerable US current affairs magazine, published its last print edition dated 31 December 2012, after almost 80 years on the newsstand.

A black and white shot of Newsweek’s Manhattan office building adorned the cover of the last print edition, with the Twitter hashtag #lastprintissue emblazoned across the front (below left). It was a fitting farewell. The magazine is transitioning to an online-only format driven, of course, by shrinking advertising revenues, and an audience that has shifted online.

Newsweek isn’t the first and certainly won’t be the last high-profile magazine to abandon print media. As to which printed editions (both newspapers and magazines) will survive and prosper in the digital age, and which will be abandoned in favour of the online-only route is an interesting question. Retention of advertising revenues, audience demographics, and the considered value or exclusivity of the content are critical factors that will drive the decision to continue to chop down trees,
put ink on paper and truck them to your home or newsagent.

Newsweek

The move to a digital-only edition will enable Newsweek to cut printing and distribution costs, though by the look of its first online-only issue, the publishers won’t be skimping on the production value of its front covers. In Newsweek’s first digital-only edition (above right), the cover features a stunning portrait of author Tom Wolfe, expertly shot by elite portrait and magazine photographer Platon. Indeed it’s vital for Newsweek to have a point of difference if it’s going to successfully compete for subscription dollars against other current affairs sites that are providing their content predominantly free of charge.

It’s not the death of print

Of course, some publishing houses will continue to support their printed publication as something of a loss leader. They’ll use the printed masthead to anchor the content and as a place to run exquisitely-produced display advertisements, but it won’t be a profit driver – far from it.

How long Australia’s embattled print media remains in a physical format without its classified rivers of gold is of course a moot question. Though when I used Google to research this piece, my search query on the longevity of Australian print media returned a listing for White Lady Funerals on the first page!

When you look at magazines like Women’s Weekly, I think it stands every chance of surviving in a physical format. Its readers can easily break down the cover price and attribute value to the content. Celebrity news, fashion, recipes, decorator and styling tips, craft ideas, health advice and tips all adds up to a whole lot of value that while they could probably find in a multiple of sites online, the magazine content is tried and tested, trusted, and is presented to them in a format that its readers enjoy. The magazine will continue to appeal to its target audience which means advertisers will hang around. At the same time, Dolly offers teenage girls access to safe content on fashion, make up, hair and beauty, boyfriends and relationships, in a format that is agreeable to their parents who are happy for them to spend their pocket money on it or even purchase a copy for them.

Print needs a good reason

On the other hand, when young twenty-something readers gauge the cover price of Cleo and Cosmopolitan over getting that sort of content free online, it’s a far more difficult proposition to support the physical magazines. Just what do these titles offer to their readers that they can’t get anywhere else?

The same can be said for our daily newspapers. Just how long will it be viable for News Limited and Fairfax to publish weekday editions of these papers when all the content is available online and everyone seems to be happier using their smartphones or tablet devices to view and catch up on the latest news. Already the nation’s daily newspapers are provided free of charge to members of gyms, visitors to zoos and major tourist attractions, as well as ticketholders at sports stadiums and arts venues. News Limited’s paywalls have yet to succeed because news content is available elsewhere. If you’re not going to pay for the printed editions, then how likely is it that you’ll pay for the online version?

Mass audiences of old have fragmented into multiple micro audiences. Along with the demise of classified revenue, established media companies are also confronting the erosion of print display and broadcast volumes. There are big opportunities to increase ad revenue from utilising programmatic premium trading platforms which empower publishers to sell premium inventory on a programmatic basis. This provides the opportunity to build a stronger direct sales channel and drive revenues, keeping control over the advertisers and ads that appear on site while providing advertisers with complete transparency so they can see exactly what they have paid for.

But established media companies are running out of time to reinvent and transform their existing business models to take advantage of the new opportunities in the marketplace. It’s not simply a matter of cutting costs and maintaining business. It requires total transformation.

In 2013 we’ll see the reinvention of many more media companies. August printed publications will become online-only ones, fortified with robust internet-age business models. Just like Encyclopaedia Britannica, which made its online-only move last year, many more companies will announce the end of the production of print editions in favour of strictly online versions. It’s the start of a new era.

 

Thriving in the age of digital publishing

by ON
Reply

This week myself and our social media specialist, Zoe Wyatt, had the pleasure of being a guest speaker at an event called Thriving in the Age of Digital Publishing, a ‘tech clinic’ on innovation in Queensland publishing. The event was run by the Business Innovation Services unit of the Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts in partnership with the Australian Institute of Commercialisation and was targeted at a wide range of publishers from across the state including those with single titles, multiple titles, newspapers and magazines.

The event was much needed. In short, out of all the industries on LinkedIn, newspapers and traditional media forms are experiencing the biggest decline. In stark contrast, digital publishing is experiencing the biggest increase.

Having come from a media background (my first journalism gig was on the sports desk of the main daily newspaper of my home town of Wellington at the tender age of 16, I started my own secondary school sports newspaper at 17 and worked in media roles in newspapers, magazines and online in New Zealand and the UK through my 20s) I certainly knew where the 30 to 40 publishers in the room were ‘coming from’; and with my experience in the online world (and innate opinion) I was happy to give them my two cents worth.

It was an onerous task to take the stage immediately after Spiros Kotsialos, digital delivery general manager for News Corp, but I spoke from the heart, as I always do, and my slot was on digital strategies and potential business models.

So what did I tell them?

The fact is there have been numerous casualties within this industry over a period of time, but at an increasing rate more recently. To name but a few in Queensland alone, in March this year we lost The Weekender and all Journals on the Sunshine Coast, in April the Queensland Business Review, Queensland 400 and Book of Lists and the Gold Coast Mail and Robina Mail have also all gone by the way side.

As I am telling lots of businesses at the moment, certainly not just publishing, it’s high time to get your head out of the sand and continue to be busy being busy. If you do, you risk not having a business to be busy in any longer.

The question in this case, as it is with many businesses across all industries, is actually not ‘How do we become more digital?’ it is in fact ‘How do we completely review and potentially revise our business model to become more profitable and sustainable?’

Four possible business models

As far as I can see there are four potential business models when it comes to publishing:

1. Replicate the publication experience online

Many regional publications have gone this way in a token gesture to get with the digital age using technologies such as Issue, Yudu and similar which basically take their printed product, and turn it into a PDF online, with the ability to flip pages and zoom in on articles. Not particularly time consuming, which is good. Not particularly expensive, which is good. In my mind, not particularly effective, which is bad.

2. Go purely online

There are several examples of publications who were once offline such as Anthill magazine who are now entirely online. Others are starting off life as a purely online product with the thought of potentially getting enough interest and advertising dollars to produce hard copies (eg. AusMumpreneur), while others have no intention at all of taking on expensive print runs and distribution runs – the bane of most publishers lives (eg. Adore Home).

3. Put up a pay wall

In your online travels you may have stumbled onto one of these – either a taste test of an article, and then an instruction to buy, or an entirely ‘buy it or leave it’ approach. The likes of the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times have all gone this way. I think it’s important to note that these are ‘uber-publications’ with seriously established brands and followings.

Whilst it’s a lovely idea that you could be making a buck for every download of every article, miraculously turning you into a money magnate, my gut feeling is the reality will be a lot harsher. While the argument exists that people will pay for information they really want, I’d counter-argue that it would have to be very well researched and exclusive content to incite a desire so strong to pay for it, to overpower the alternative of seeking the information elsewhere online, and for free.

4. Freemium

Of all the models listed above, if I had to pick one to put my money on, I’d probably go with this one. This is where some information is made available for free, with a stepped approach to pay for more exclusive content, an approach News Ltd has currently gone with. There are many examples of other industries, particularly in the software space using this business model with a good level of success. Just think of all the cloud-based solutions which offer the ability to try it for free for 30 days, pay a limited amount for a limited service, and then grow into higher plans as you better understand the offering and are coaxed into paying larger amounts for it.

Only time will tell which business model is indeed the winner, but in the mean time, the great thing about being a part of the event is that I witnessed more than a few ‘light bulb’ moments at the event, and can’t wait to see some of the dramatic, though positive, changes some of those present in the room will make.

It was heartening to see a wide range of great service providers in the room including Oomph (a smart digital publishing/tablet platform), webqem (who specialise in the Adobe offerings), pixelnatives (who have great app solutions) and City Desktop training who train people in the use of a wide range of software.

If you’re in the publishing game, I encourage you to go check them out, or suggest those you like in comments.

 

Magazine readership down 2.7%, but men’s titles plummet

by ON
Reply

Sports and men’s magazines bore the brunt of the magazine industry’s woes in the latest round of readership figures from Roy Morgan Research.

The disparity between the fortunes of men’s and women’s titles continues to develop for publishers, with the general men’s category down 19.8% and the men’s lifestyle category down 16.0% year on year, while women’s lifestyle dropped only 3.1%, mass women’s was down 2.3% and women’s fashion grew 2.0%.

ACP’s men’s titles People fell 17.4% and Picture slid 26%, and NewsLifeMedia’s GQ fell 36.5%, contributing to the fall of the men’s category. In the women’s, Morrison Media’s Frankie was a strong performer posting an increase of 39.1%, ACP’s Grazia rose 24.4% and The Australian Women’s Weekly grew 7%, to extend its market lead with 2,348,000 readers nation wide. ACP’s NW fell 17.3%. and Woman’s Day dropped 7%, but still retained second place in terms of overall readership.

Other poor performing categories in an industry that declined 2.7% overall were TV, with a drop of 23.4%, sports, down 21.4%, and motorcycle, down 18.7%. Along with women’s fashion, the only other categories to record an increase were computing, gaming and information technology, up 4.4%, and music and movies, up 10.3%.

Overall, 87 publications saw a decline in readership compared to 42 who saw an increase. The worst performers were Virgin Australia Voyeur, down 39.5%, GQ, down 36.5%, Foxtel Magazine, down 36.3%, and FHM, down 29%.

Top 20 by decrease in readership

Strong performers for March 2012 included Game Informer, up 68.2%, Australian Traveller, up 54%, Frankie, up 39.1%, Australian Geographic, up 26%, and The Week, up 24.5%.

Top 20 by increase in readership

According to forecasts from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), magazine revenue is expected to shrink by 3.7% to $2115 million between now and 2015, with revenue from online delivery set to be the main growth area, predicted to jump 376% to $238 million.

Read: Marketing’s coverage of BCG’s forecasts for all media types.

 

Print slides again, but media chiefs claim audience has never been higher

by ON
Reply

Newspaper readership declined further in the first three months of 2012, as publishers look to multi-platform strategies that maximise digital revenues and rationalise print edition circulation in response to the structural change affecting the industry.

But while the readership and circulation data from Roy Morgan and the Australian Bureau of Circulations (ABC) augured badly for print’s future, for some mastheads the news wasn’t all bad, with overall increases in readership numbers recorded when print and digital was combined.

Australian consumers bought 18.5 million printed national, metropolitan and regional newspapers per week during the three months to March 31, 2012, a figure representing a year-on-year drop of 5.0% for Monday to Saturday newspaper sales. The decline appears to have accelerated since the previous quarter which recorded a year-on-year fall of 3.9%.

However, in addition to print readers, publication titles benefited from six million consumers who accessed national and metropolitan newspaper mastheads online in each month of the quarter. For some, including the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, this meant an increased readership figure.

Whether the higher readership figure translated to an increase in overall combined sales, a metric released by the ABC for the first time under new rules, was unclear without the presence of figures from previous quarters to compare.

According to CEO of The Newspaper Works, Tony Hale, the print circulations numbers only tell part of the story with “robust, ongoing growth of audiences engaging with newspapers across online, mobile and tablet” impacting greatly on masteheads’ overall readership levels.

With publishers looking to rationalise print circulation by circulation initiatives contributing to a planned reduction in print edition sales include lowering distribution through community event channels and reducing the number of sales counted through bundled, discounted or secondary means, the focus has well and truly turned to maximising digital.

“Further distribution via digital channels is being looked at by all Australian publishers,” Hale adds. “Some may choose to further reduce unprofitable print sales as new business models emerge.”

Over the current period, metropolitan masthead sales declined more than national masthead sales, with the former down 4.8% to 8.8 million for Monday to Friday, 5.4% to 2.2 million on Saturdays and 5.3% to 2.8 million on Sundays. National papers declined by 2.4% to 1.4 million, with Saturday sales declining more than weekday sales. Regional newspapers suffered the greatest circulation drop, down 6.5% to 3.2 million per week for Monday to Saturday sales.

Fairfax papers suffered greater losses than News Ltd over the period, both in the Audit Bureau’s circulation figures, and Roy Morgan’s Readership figures.

The Australian Financial Review fell 3.0% in circulation and 13.2% in readership for Monday to Friday, while the weekend edition dropped 11.8% in circulation and 4.3% in readership.

The Australian dropped 1.6% in circulation and 10% in readership for Monday to Friday, while the weekend edition fell 0.8% in circulation and 10.2% in readership.

The Sydney Morning Herald shed 13.6% in circulation and 11.5% for Monday to Friday, while the Saturday edition lost 13.8% in circulation and 5.0% of readers. For its digital editions, the masthead took in 36,816 in paid sales on Monday to Friday, resulting in a combined digital and print sales figure of 198,335. Saturday’s combined figure totalled 310,410 readers, with 40,158 paying for digital editions.

The Daily Telegraph lost 0.8% of circulation and 7.8% of readers Monday to Friday, while the Saturday edition grew in circulation by 0.8% but lost 8.0% of readers.

The Sun-Herald shed 10.8% of circulation and 4.3% of readers. Paid digital editions were sold to 40,268 to give the masthead a combined paid circulation of 402,350.

The Sunday Telegraph dropped 1.4% of circulation and 7.1% of readers.

The Age lost 13.4% in circulation and 7.9% in readership on Monday to Fridays, while the Saturday edition declined 12.4% in circulation and 13.3% in readership. Digital sales of 9,311 on Monday to Friday took the overall masthead paid circulation to 170,005, while on Saturdays 9,369 bought digital editions, taking Saturday combined masthead sales to 245,597.

The Herald Sun fell 3.0% in circulation and 7.9% in readership on Monday to Friday, while Saturday’s edition dropped 3.5% in readership and 9.9% in readership.

The Sunday Age dropped 8.6% in circulation and 9.5% in readership, while the digital edition sold 9,376 units to take total masthead sales to 210,650.

The Sunday Herald Sun dropped 5.0% in circulation and 14.0% of readership.

In Queensland, The Courier-Mail experienced greater declines on Saturday (-8.2% circulation) than Monday to Friday (-3.9% circulation), and The Sunday Mail dropped 6.4% in circulation.

South Australian and Western Australian metropolitan mastheads proved more resilient, with the Advertiser up 0.1% Monday to Friday and only experiencing a small drop for its weekend editions, and the West Australian down 1.8% on average across Mondays to Saturday.

Fairfax credits its decline to its focus on a more sustainable and profitable print edition circulation, involving renewed concentration on smaller but more engaged newspaper audiences, and a withdrawal of print from education channels, community events and free, bundled or discounted placements.

“We now manage our business on a multi-platform basis, and comprehensive audience measurement across all our platforms is critical to providing our stakeholders with a complete picture of the evolution of audience engagement with our major Metro Media brands,” CEO of Fairfax Metro Media, Jack Matthews says.

Fairfax analysis reports continued growth combined digital and print audience numbers compared with the same period last year, with the number of readers consuming both the Sydney Morning Herald and smh.com.au increasing by 11%, and the number accessing The Age and theage.com.au increasing by 7%.

Not yet supporting the ABC’s combined print and digital metric, CEO of News Ltd, Kim Williams, comments that News publications are also reaching more people than they have before. “Our key digital mastheads are visited by an unduplicated unique audience of 5.2 million Australians every month,” Williams says.

“The Australian has around 40,000 digital subscribers in addition to its monthly unique audience of around one million visitors to its website.  We are encouraged by the take up of our current Herald Sun trial of digital subscriptions,” Williams adds.

“The industry is moving towards a new measurement system and over time will include digital media consumption in its overall figures which will provide a more complete picture.”

 

ACP ceases production of lads’ mag FHM

by ON
Reply

ACP Magazines announced today it will cease production of the Australian version of men’s monthly magazine, FHM.

The May 2012 issue will be the last to go to print, and when it goes off sale on 13 May the website will shut down.

The announcement comes after the latest circulation figures saw FHM shed over a quarter of readers last year.

“The decision to close a title is never an easy one and FHM is certainly no exception,” says Matt Stanton, CEO, ACP Magazines. “FHM is a terrific brand but, given the current market conditions, it has been difficult for ACP to make it a commercially viable proposition.

ACP stablemate, and rival men’s mag, Ralph closed in May 2010, as the market share of both monthly titles was eroded by the entrance of Zoo weekly in 2006 and cross-category titles like Top Gear and Men’s Health.

The FHM brand is owned by German company, Bauer Media Group, and version are published in 21 geographies including China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Romania and the United Kingdom.

 

Newspaper circulation continues to fall

by ON
Reply

 

The Audit Bureau of Circulations has reported newsprint circulation has fallen 2.5% in the first quarter of 2011. Industry body The Newspaper Works has attributed the drop to soft retail conditions and tightened consumer spending.

Broadsheet newspapers suffered less than tabloids, with The Age,The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald essentially steady and combined Saturday sales fell 1.8 per cent.

The Newspaper Works CEO Tony Hale said while the decline continued a negative trend set last year, he could draw a positive in the strength of broadsheets.

“Significantly, in the latest quarter the broadsheets have performed strongly,” he says, “with combined Monday to Friday sales of the three largest broadsheets slipping by a negligible 0.2 per cent.”

“Sales of regional newspapers also held up very well, increasing by 0.1%, a reflection of the important role they continue to play in their own communities,” he says.

Royal wedding gets print back in punters hands

by ON
Reply

Apparently the royals still pull a crowd. Magazines and papers that ran covers and specials related to the royal wedding have posted impressive sales numbers over the celebration period.

The Herald Sun posted a massive 50, 000 increase in copies of their Saturday paper, with an extra 25, 000 picked up on Sunday and an extra 20, 000 on Monday,

Editor in chief of the Herald & Weekly Times, Phil Gardner said the Official Royal Wedding Commemorative Medallion, produced by the Royal Australian Mint and available free with Saturday’s paper, was a winner with readers. On Monday, a 52-page gloss souvenir-wedding magazine was available for $2 with purchase of the paper and sold out.

“Whoever says newspapers are dying certainly doesn’t understand the appetite of Victorians for the Herald Sun’s coverage of major news events,” Gardner said, underscoring his newspaper’s commitment to receiving funding from advertisers in the future.

The Herald Sun customer service line also reportedly received more than 1000 calls on Monday concerning the magazine and medallions. A release sent to Marketing magazine implies this was a positive outcome. Even if they were negative calls, the attention is enviable.

ACP are also boasting of big sales, with royal wedding editions of Women’s Day, Grazia, OK! And the Australian Women’s Weekly selling out or getting damn close to it.

“Sales of our special royal wedding issues are staggering and it’s clear that the royals are having a renaissance, ACP Magazines publisher Robyn Foyster said.

Foyster said both Woman’s Day and GRAZIA were technical sell-outs, and were just keeping up with new stock requests. 

“Woman’s Day has sold an average week’s circulation in just two days and recorded the highest sales in Woolworths in over seven years,” Foyster said.

At the other end of the spectrum, or similar territory (depending on how you view marriage), death also proved popular with readers, with the Herald Sun continuing their big numbers in to Tuesday with a 20, 000 increase in sales featuring coverage of Osama Bin Laden’s killing.