Thursday, January 27, 2005
KR eyes free tabloids
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Newspaper publisher Knight Ridder Inc. is considering launching free dailies and smaller, tabloid-size editions of its papers to boost readership, Chief Executive Tony Ridder said on Wednesday.
To court new readers who may shun traditional newspapers, some U.S. and European publishers have launched no-charge dailies that are aimed largely at commuters. In Britain, two of the country's largest papers have downsized to tabloid formats instead of traditional broadsheets.
A Knight Ridder circulation task force is eyeing both of these industry trends, said Ridder, whose San Jose, California-based company publishes papers including The Miami Herald and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
"We think that a tabloid size has a lot of appeal and there's a track record in various places that indicates that really works and can boost circulation," he said in a conference call with analysts following the release of the company's fourth-quarter profit report.
"Even though we haven't made a final decision, we will probably be testing that in a few markets," he said.
The task force also will review whether it makes sense for the company to launch a free daily paper, Ridder said.
The newspaper business is struggling with long-term trends of declining readership as many younger people have not adopted the daily newspaper habit of older generations.
In Britain, the Times and the Independent newspapers recently shrunk in size, publishing compact editions rather than the broadsheets that younger readers may find bulky and staid.
The free tabloid trend also is gaining in popularity. These papers typically are packed with short articles for commuters who only have a few minutes in the morning to scan the news.
The New York Times Co. recently announced a deal to buy 49 percent of free commuter daily Boston Metro for $16.5 million, joining other publishers such as Tribune Co., Belo Corp., Washington Post Co. that offer similar types of tabloids.
The Boston Herald, a competitor to the New York Times' Boston Globe newspaper, has filed an antitrust complaint with the U.S. Justice Department that says the New York Times deal is anticompetitive.
[Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved]
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1 comment:
In 1950, 123% of households bought a newspaper
(1.23 papers sold per household)
In 1990, 67% of households bought a newspaper
In 2000, it was 53%
Source: Editor & Publisher Data
From 1950 to 1990, newspapers lost 45% of their households in 40 years. From 1990 to 2000, newspapers lost 21% in 10 years, which means that the average yearly attrition rate for 1990-2000 was DOUBLE the rate for 1950-1990.
It doesn't matter where the blame lies: 24/7 cable news, more workers with less time to read, newspapers reducing services and appeal to readers accustomed to MTV and CNN Headline News. The facts are that the exodus from newspapers is cascading downhill faster than an avalanche.
We were lucky to be at the BJ when there was JSK, who thought like an editor instead of a bean-counter, and it was fun to go to work and the reader was the No. 1 concern, not how much money to raise to add to Tony Ridder's fleet of yachts.
No wonder they are called "the good old days." They were.
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