| Sustainability measures by publishers - long term success at stake |
| Wednesday, 28 September 2011 | |
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The closure of newspapers and magazines due to recession and falling revenues is still met with dismay by the industry and readers alike. It does not however elicit much in terms of the ‘surprise factor’. This is a far cry from when the news about closure of The Rocky Mountain News was made public. In 2009 the TIME magazine ran a story ‘The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America’ indicating the various stages of hardships that these newspapers were in. When Gourmet magazine announced closure after 70 years of being in print, the reasons cited were - losing revenues to online advertising, decline in ad sales, increasing popularity of television food shows and online sites. Ad revenues moved from print to online and the readers’ habits have changed as well. The San Francisco Chronicle, owned by Hearst had announced that if changes in performance were not evident fast enough, chances of only ‘an online version’ were high.
Survival of the fittest
Many newspapers have stopped printing and rely on digital version with some portions available only as paid subscription. The Internet and freely available news has made the survival of even the online format tough. As small publications struggle to stay afloat, innovations in subscription models can be seen - to cater to all types of readers. The adjoining picture indicates how The Chronicle, the only paid-for newspaper in San Francisco is offering multiple options to its subscribers. The effort to make the print version, the online version and the iPad app co-exist, is a difficult proposition since each one of the format needs different inputs in terms of printing expertise, technology, software, distribution models among others. What the online and app offer is the extra advantage of reading on the move and increased and easy reader engagement. The eventual survivor and winner will be the one that generates maximum revenues.
Survival instinct kicks in 
One example of successful transition that can be cited was scripted by M.E. Sprengelmeyer, the ex-national reporter and foreign correspondent for the Rocky Mountain News. He now manages a small community newspaper. The changes included getting rid of the website, localizing content to the extent that local advertisers started to benefit, and getting people from the community interested in what the newspaper had to publish. It will be interesting to see if this small newspaper is able to sustain with these and other such changes. Many publishers have realized that it is imperative for them to move to digital formats. There is a huge difference between the way legacy and digital systems operate, and requires investments. The changes that companies will typically need to make include formulating a digital strategy, appointing people to lead the initiative, understanding online advertising, and appointing people to manage online content and editing. Social media is also being used by smaller publishers to engage their readers. Instances of interacting with readers on Facebook are fairly common. During the conversations that we had with industry stakeholders, the following measures have come up:
Sustainability – the ultimate test
Small measures will help companies to overcome problems that are short term or foreseeable. The bigger challenge is that at least some of the measures are able to provide long term solutions. These will necessarily have to impact the company policies and must affect internal costs, approach to advertisers, sales and distribution, content generation and reader engagements. Will it be possible for them to strike a balance and find a model that can work with both the advertisers and customers? This is the question that is still unanswered resulting in frequent announcements of closure.
- Deepali Sathe, Project Manager, ValueNotes Sourcing Practice
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