Can newspapers survive the internet age AND economic downturn?

[Dave B]

In this day and age, how many of you still buy a daily newspaper in physical form?

I've just seen the ABCs, the circulation figures of UK national titles, and without exception every daily's sales are down both month-on-month and year-on-year.

The only paper with even remotely respectable performance is the Daily Star - down just 0.1% last month, but that was achieved by a 50% price reduction which was unsustainable and ended recently.

Given that most papers have decent online versions nowadays, coupled with the availability of news from a multitude of other sources, is there any reason to still buy the physical copy?

For anybody interested, there's a summary of the sales figures here. It makes pretty depressing reading if you work at a newspaper!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2009/jan/09/abc-december-national-newspapers

[Mark]

In this day and age, how many of you still buy a daily newspaper in physical form?

I've just seen the ABCs, the circulation figures of UK national titles, and without exception every daily's sales are down both month-on-month and year-on-year.

The only paper with even remotely respectable performance is the Daily Star - down just 0.1% last month, but that was achieved by a 50% price reduction which was unsustainable and ended recently.

Given that most papers have decent online versions nowadays, coupled with the availability of news from a multitude of other sources, is there any reason to still buy the physical copy?

For anybody interested, there's a summary of the sales figures here. It makes pretty depressing reading if you work at a newspaper!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2009/jan/09/abc-december-national-newspapers

For those who have access to the internet on a daily basis then no, it isn't worth it. Although most newspapers in the UK are hugely biased and some people like reading that sort of thing.

But it depends on your situation, for example my Mum likes to spend half an hour in bed in the morning reading the paper. And if you are getting the train then I can imagine reading the paper would be easiest.

[steve_spackman]

In this day and age, how many of you still buy a daily newspaper in physical form?

I've just seen the ABCs, the circulation figures of UK national titles, and without exception every daily's sales are down both month-on-month and year-on-year.

The only paper with even remotely respectable performance is the Daily Star - down just 0.1% last month, but that was achieved by a 50% price reduction which was unsustainable and ended recently.

Given that most papers have decent online versions nowadays, coupled with the availability of news from a multitude of other sources, is there any reason to still buy the physical copy?

For anybody interested, there's a summary of the sales figures here. It makes pretty depressing reading if you work at a newspaper!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2009/jan/09/abc-december-national-newspapers

i dont buy a paper anymore..i used to buy the daily mail and usa today, which is one of the best US papers i have read thus far


its also started to affect the postal services of certain countries, due to people being able to pay bills online etc...

[schmenke]

I rarely purchase a newspaper. We have a weekend subscription to the local rag, but that's only so the missus can receive the weekly television guide, and I can get the Sunday funnies :D .

[Brown, Jon Brow]

No one likes The Independant anymore. Maybe that is because it was a popular paper with students and they are likely to get news online.

[BDunnell]

I buy The Guardian on occasions, but mostly read it online. In part, this is because buying a daily paper genuinely feels wasteful to me, even though I always recycle it.

[veeten]

No, Dave, this is depressing...

http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4BU53T20081231?sp=true

Yes, now the idea of a 'bailout' for newspapers has come about. So long 'freedom of the press', hello 'mouthpiece of x-y-z or incumbent party'.

[Hazell B]

Regional newspapers will always weather the storm, but maybe nationals will go.

Doesn't make any difference to me, not bought a single national in over five years and only buy the regional (Yorkshire Post) on saturdays for the auction guide, plus I stopped writing for any of them when they employed sixteen year olds with zero ability to grasp facts over fashionable terms. I once wrote "... was miffed at....." and it was printed ".... outrage at ...." :rolleyes:

[J4MIE]

I read the metro in my lunchbreak at work, but even then it's just cos it's free ;)

[Storm]

I buy 2 newspapers each day...one is the Times of India (national English daily) which is getting crappier every day and other is a regional Marathi daily - Sakaal...I will continue to buy them even though I do read online news in different languages each day (including cnn.com and Marca :s ).

Its just not the same without a real newspaper in your hands.....atleast in India newspapers are not dying a slow death. Just about everybody I know and see on the roads buys a newspaper every day.

[jim mcglinchey]

In the UK perhaps everyone knew the press was generally shi+ but until something better came along, we were all stuck with it.

[Daniel]

Regional newspapers will always weather the storm, but maybe nationals will go.

Doesn't make any difference to me, not bought a single national in over five years and only buy the regional (Yorkshire Post) on saturdays for the auction guide, plus I stopped writing for any of them when they employed sixteen year olds with zero ability to grasp facts over fashionable terms. I once wrote "... was miffed at....." and it was printed ".... outrage at ...." :rolleyes:

"Yorkshire woman wrongly quoted in paper shocker!!!!!!!"

:p

[Mark in Oshawa]

Personally? I read two newspapers a day when I am at home. I love the ritual of going to the coffee shop and having a leisurely breakfast while reading the paper and drinking coffee. The problem is of course is I am in the US about 4 or 5 days a week and I don't care to read the watered down political tripe that is in a lot of US papers. I know that I want a Canadian perspective since I am Canadian, but it is obvious to me that American journalism is so bad there is a TON of people down there that deserve to lose their jobs on the papers they publish or edit.

The reason newspapers in North America are in trouble is because they are just not that current or on the ball often. That said...I live outside a major media market with 4 daily newspapers and all of them have a decent amount of content and great writing in just about all sections. The Canadian newspaper industry actually puts out a decent product and most major markets have 2 or more papers fighting for readers. In the US...one lousy paper suffices in all but a few major cities.

I think reading the paper on the internet sucks...but news being a right now business I think it is a sense the death knell for newspapers as we know them...