Opinion: Save the Independent by going digital

The paper's newsprint issues have been steadily falling in circulation.  The cover price increase to £1 hasn't helped, as last month, only 119,000 of the 201,000 copies a day were bought at full price.

The Independent's editor Roger Alton has "gone public" attacking the papers decisions, Greenslade reports, as Alton has called the paper's position very "vulnerable" because of its size.

The main advantage to going online, Greenslade says, is because the paper is already there.  The audience increased 93% compared to September 2007, although it still lags behind rivals with more than 20-million viewers.  The Independent has shown itself as an innovator, and can develop its online product to be successful.

The Independent's going all online would "lead the digital revolution towards its next, inevitable phase," wiping out production costs and eliminating distribution expenses, not to mention "saving trees."

But would going totally online just prove another palliative answer for an industry that has failed to gain sufficient ad revenues to run its newsrooms both in print and online?

This was the Independent's original thought, calculating that it would be "ruinous" financially to go entirely online, with the balance from losing print advertising totaling around £30 million in one year.  Greenslade identifies this possibility, but also points out that the paper is losing too many print readers to profit.

By "planning now for an online future," the Independent would "reap the rewards of being the first major paper in the world" to go entirely online.  The brand of the Independent is "on a global scale, a saleable, marketable commodity," Greenslade said, drawing on Rupert Murdoch's recent speech about the future of newspapers.

Multi-platform journalism is the best, and most financially prudent way of distributing content, Greenslade says, but for how long? 

Source:  The Evening Standard via IFRA