There really is very little to say in a two horse race. The Herald is down 5% to 62,000 and the Echo back 13% and into the teens at 18,600. It is the dying market of the newsprint industry. A glance at the chart below tell of the fortunes of the Evening newspaper Market where its been loosing about 6% each year for the past five years.
A much depleted field than in normal years, with only twenty-five papers opting to produce an audited figure. Last Thursday IN&M announced that although their regional titles had been audited, they would not be auditing their twelve regional papers from here on in. Seemingly the ABC audit figures “did not resonate with local advertisers”. What data instead they hope would “resonate with the advertisers” is a mystery. It’s worth looking back at the fortunes of
Firstly, apologies for the “stat attack”, but there are 43 local papers audited so there really is no choice but to have plenty of data. Just by way of explanation: there two totals on the bottom of the chart. The first are “Year Totals”, they are simply the total of all the local papers audited that year. The more important figure is the like for like figures. They take the papers audited in 2011 and
If you wnated a headlin figure for this Jan June 2011 ABC’s it would be the fact that the Sunday market slipped into six figures. It comes on the back of the closure of the Sunday Tribune and the semi-closure (as the paper in another guise is still available) of the Daily Star on Sunday. Actually it could be worse as the News of the World in real life is no longer around but still reported
The morning market declined by 5% year on year in 2011 (not too bad in comparison to the 11% fall in the Sunday Market) and sees it drop below the 600,000 mark. Just to ram home the recessionary point, the morning market hasn’t seen an increase in sales since 2007. Publication JJ 2011 JJ 2010 Diff ‘000 Diff % Irish Independent 134,228 144,896 -10,668 -7% Irish Times 100,951 105,742 -4,791 -5% Examiner 43,390 46,687 -3,297
Just to be complete the Evening Market. There is no daily breakdown of the Heralds’ figure, so it’s impossible to say how the addition of the Dubliner has worked for them. Publication JJ 2011 JJ 2010 Diff ‘000 Diff % Evening Herald 61,936 67,657 -5,721 -8% Echo 20,011 22,288 -2,277 -10% Total 81,947 89,945 -7,998 -9% There is very little else to add, bar in graphical form, which really says it all.
In the regional department only four paid titles managed to stay the right side of last years figure. In the main the local papers in and around the Leinster region seem to have faired out the worst (Callow People –22%, Leinster Leader –19% Fingal Independent – 15% etc). Each of the regional’s will have their own unique story, unique to their particular area. Naturally there will be a element of the macro economics in that
Well, finally. The fast paced world of print has finally decided to publish figures. We can now reveal that the sale of the Irish Times in July 2010 was 98,847 copies a day. So, if you ran a campaign with that publication or any of the other laggards (in terms of publishing meaningful audited figures) you will now be able to see why its was a success or failure – eight months later. Publication July
The Sunday market is where the recent focus has been with the closure of one paper and another in receivership. The Sunday Tribune (ST) didn’t file an ABC for the last half of 2010. There’s a cost involved there and perhaps the receiver felt that until another buyer was found (or not) the money would be better spent elsewhere. Anyway – the king is dead, long live the king and its an intriguing tale in
And Finally…. The much awaited ‘Island Of Ireland Report finally made it to daylight. And its as expected, it’s unpleasant reading. Below are the topline for the main markets. The Sundays took the brunt of the blow, suffering a 61,000 decline from the period Jan-June ‘09 to Jan-June ‘10. To put that in context: that’s the single largest yearly drop looking back to 2000. The Mornings also lost out by 46,000 or 7%. And, again,
The Sundays had mixed fortunes. For the papers that have their finger on the pulse and not elsewhere and who actually publish timely circulation numbers on a monthly basis, their plight is well documented. In the market four papers have circulations of under 10,000 and therefore throw up large percentage swings, so we’re not going to dwell on them too much on them. # The biggest fallers in the market were the Sunday Tribune (-11,327),
In numerical terms not the same drop as the Sundays but in percentage terms is severe. Even looking back as far as the millennium you wont see the same percentage decline. The Tabloids, like the Sunday market have been in decline for many months – seeming feeling the effects of the ‘R’ worse than others. The Irish Times dropped 8% to 105,000, again for them it’s the single biggest y.o.y. decline since 2000 (only looking
It’s a waste of pixels, but it has to be done. Publication Jan June 2009 Jan June 2010 Diff ‘000 Diff % Evening Herald 71,187 67,657 -3,530 -5% Echo 24,192 22,288 -1,904 -8% Total 95,379 89,945 -5,434 -6% More of the same. The only item of note is with regard to the “Dubliner” wrapped up inside the Herald on a Thursday. Introduced in April, the paper’s circulation that month did increase – but that was
The only reason I used the phrase ‘regional newspapers’ in the title was because that’s how the phrase will be. They should be called (rebranded) the less parochial “weekly” or “local newspapers”, but I digress. Because of the chopping an changing in this market, it’s difficult to get an exact handle on it. The only way is to compare “like with like” on the different years. So, like with like (ie the papers that were
At a point where there are two non-competing papers in a ‘market’ – it’s difficult to describe such a scenario as a ‘Market’ at all. Publication July Dec 2008 July Dec 2009 Diff ‘000 Diff % Evening Herald 79,447 71,187 -8,260 -10% Echo 25,829 24,192 -1,637 -6% 0 Total 105,276 95,379 -9,897 -9% The Evening Market is back nearly 10,000 copies. The Herald fell 10% or 8,200 copies and the Echo
The Morning Market is down 7% or 47,000 copies. The Daily Mail is the biggest sufferer down nearly 10,000 copies to 49,000 which is 17% over the 12 months under scrutiny. Given the spend on advertising/promotions for the Daily that has to be a bit of an eye opener in Ballsbridge. The Irish Times took a hit of 7% and 8,500 copies. Like the Mail this has to alert the powers that be (in waiting
Looking at the biggest market, the Sunday, it managed to fair a little better that the mornings or evenings. The market is down 47,000 year on year or 4% and to put that in cash terms, €2.5m at the till. It could be reasonably argued that a 4% decline in the year that was is not too shabby. On a positive point the Sunday Mirror gained 500 copies year on year and the Sunday Times
The figure for the last six months of the decades were released today and, non surprises. Overall the total market is down 5% in comparison to July – December 2008, or to put it more starkly, down over 100,000 copies. The main percentage hit came form the morning market back 7% or nearly 50,000. Likewise for the Sunday’s but in percentage terms they are down 4%. The Evenings, even at a low base are down
As it a calendar year it a good time to look at over numbers – but the ones that count – €’s. Looking at the circulation figures and the cover price of the respective papers – we can see the how the shift in numbers affects the top-line. There are a few caveats to this analysis. It’s the difference in average circulation between the first half and second half of the year, it’s the December
Regional papers are feeling the pinch with a year on year decline in the order of 8%. But some papers are really feeling the squeeze. As a group, of those that are audited, they are back nearly 30,000 copies. The table below is a bit information overload – but it’s worth looking at the data at that level. Jan-June ’08 Jan-June ’09 +/- ‘000 +/- % The Anglo Celt 13,836 13,247 -589 -4% The Argus
