E259 That Great Business Show - The end of newspapers? - Alan English former editor, Sunday Independent
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E259 That Great Business Show
With thanks to De Facto Shaving Oil, the world's finest.
The newspaper industry is 'existentially challenged'. So says Alan English, former editor of the Sunday Independent, Ireland's biggest selling newspaper.
Though he says that 'end of print is some way off', he does hint that newspaper may end up as a weekend leisure read. That could imply no weekdays editions. It could start with a 'shakeout' of the Irish market and Alan points the finger at UK tabloids in Ireland as being the weakest players in the market, faced with what terms 'the survival of the fittest'. He's not too hopeful about 'a lot of local titles' as well. Part of the problem is that 'it's extremely difficult to make digital pay at the local level'. Add to this the recent calamitous collapse in 'Google referrals' following Google's algorithmic change that has seen people just accepting Google's own answer to a search question.
The worst deal ever done globally in the newspaper industry? Alan says it was the 2005 purchase of the Leinster Leader Group by Johnston Press for €138.6 million (titles included Leinster Leader, Limerick Leader, Offaly Express, Dundalk Democrat, Express and others). By April 2014, Johnston sold its 14 regional newspapers in the Republic of Ireland to Iconic Newspapers Limited, led by Malcolm Denmark, for around €8.5 million. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
Distribution is a major problem. Newspapers are competing with chocolate bars etc for selling space. Innovation in this area appears to have failed. Alan tells a great story about two ninety-year-olds when he was looking for a copy of the Napa Register newspaper while on holidays in California.
Alan, who only recently retired, says 'he has another gig in him'
His 'hire in a heartbeat'? Vincent Browne!!! ('the best journalist Ireland has produced in my lifetime' says Alan)
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