Results matching “evening news for free”

 

Do you speak Twitter? Come on, Tweeple... It's time to get with the program. Yes, you Tweeple, people of the Twitter universe, or Twitterverse. Whether you are a newetter (a new tweeter), an occasionitter (an occasional Tweeter) or a seasoned reportwitters (you guessed it, reporter-style twitterer), an entire range of Twitter vocabulary has arrived. 

Joining the rising trend of niche news on the web, UK publishers the Yorkshire Evening Post and KM Group are set to launch several hyperlocal sites and for the communities surrounding Leeds and Kent, respectively.

The Yorkshire Evening Post will introduce 20 sites for the Leeds region containing news, information, sports and entertainment. Most sites will also feature audio and video

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Labour MP Tom Watson go head-to-head on Twitter, as Watson and the Daily Mail accuse the centre-left paper of going too far. Last week, the newspaper went ahead with a front-page editorial urging the British PM Gordon Brown to resign.

Daily Mail obsessed with idea of Guardian 'putsch' (in collusion with BBC?). A question of media ethics, apparently. http://tiny.cc/7Wp3M"

And so went the tweet that started it all, with Rusbridger linking to the Daily Mail article, in which Stephen Glover asks "Was it [the Guardian] trying to orchestrate events so as to secure the resignation which it had called for in its editorial?"

According to the New York Times, American television network CBS has joined efforts with live video web site, Ustream, to have its news video content and special reports streamed live on the site, in a bid to draw in a younger crowd.

"Seeking a younger audience more accustomed to watching the news on the Internet than on television," reports the Times, Ustream will show the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, as well as a variety of real-time news reporting and other coverage, including news conferences and speeches.

The Press Association is in talks with some of the UK's regional newspaper groups with regards to taking over from ITV as the main supplier of video content, the Guardian has reported.

At present, the PA provides free raw news footage to the Manchester Evening News, owned by the Guardian Media Group and to the regional arm of the Trinity Mirror group as part of a six-month trial period.  

Following its relaunch yesterday, reactions to the Evening Standard's new format have been split mainly between its new look and its new content. Stephen Brook of the Guardian was initially pessimistic about the new Standard, branding it's cover "excessive", "cheap-looking" and "verging on garish". He also laments the demotion of the iconic Eros from the masthead to page 2, although writes that the "new, plumper masthead looks good" - 'London' has also been returned to the title.

Brook is more impressed with the Standard's new content. The design of the publication's interior is "more restrained" than its bright cover, and he writes that it has assembled a "strong line up of talent for its comment pages". Brook also feels that where the Standard previously "fell down a bit in the middle, in the gap between news and business," it is now pulling ahead with a new and improved features section.

Even niche and humor media are suffering with the current crisis as we see The Onion has been forced to close its San Francisco and Los Angeles editions. The free weekly daily saw a circulation of 60,000 and 50,000 in each city respectively.

The Telegraph and the Times are training their staff to optimise content in a bid to improve rankings by attracting users to their sites.

As part of general plans to overhaul newsroom operations, more and more newspapers are beginning to rethink their search engine optimisation strategies which not only improve the online experience for the user, but also lead to a rise in traffic, as the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCe) show.

Thelondonpaper, News International's free London based daily, will launch a new look website on April 1st. Changes will include increased commercial opportunities and an increased coverage of the publication's Going Out Guide, which offers readers advice on the best places to go in the capital. There will also be a new design, and more focus on social networks (including a link with Facebook).

Saalim Chowdhury is head of digital products at thelondonpaper and explained the overhaul is due to the publication's notion that "18 to 35 users trust us over anyone else to help them get more out of London".

News International launched thelondonpaper as a competitor for the Daily Mail General Trust's morning free daily Metro, and its creation was also the reason for the launch of DMGT's evening free daily the London Lite. Both thelondonpaper and the London Lite are in direct competition with Alexander Lebedev's Evening Standard, which was also previously owned by DMGT.

Source: Media Week

With Metro UK celebrating its 10th birthday next week Stephen Brook of the Observer has examined the effect its launch has had upon the newspaper industry in London and the rest of the UK.  Although slow starting, the Daily Mail General Trust owned publication is now distributed in 16 cities, and its success and impact upon the circulation of paid for titles eventually prompted a reaction from rival companies.  "Ultimately, its success came at a cost for DMGT", writes Brook, as it prompted the launch of News International's evening rival the thelondonpaper.  Although DMGT did manage to launch their evening freesheet the London Lite just days before the NI launch, both have had a considerable detrimental effect upon sales of DMGT's Evening Standard.

Metro "which reportedly achieved annual profits of £8m a year during the good times, gave itself over to advertisers in a way that no self-respecting paid-for newspaper would".  However, the exclusive contract which allows Metro UK to be distributed in London Underground stations and is so essential to its popularity, is up for renewal next month.  The merits of free newspapers are debatable: they have a derogatory effect on their paid for counterparts, yet the manner of their distribution attracts younger readers to reading news in print - DMGT's decision to launch Metro UK was apparently partly due to the sight of "young commuters reading a newspaper, rather than staring into space" in Stockholm.  Either way, Brook believes that when "media historians cast their eye over the past decade", the freesheet trend will be a defining one.

Source: The Guardian

More news of cutbacks and money-saving measures for local newspapers in the US.  According to an announcement from the two publications, the Star-Ledger of Newark and the Record of Hackensack are combining their statehouse bureaus.  The two are New Jersey's largest newspapers, and Star-Ledger editor Jim Willse explains, "At a time when newspapers have had to cut back news staffs, this cooperation allows us to pool resources and better serve all our readers".  The Star-Ledger and the Record have also recently teamed up with other publications to form the Northeast Consortium and enable content sharing between them.

In Indiana, the Bloomfield Free Press is moving online-only.  The publication's owner and publisher R. Michael Johnson has explained that the foreseen rise in postage costs in May is the last straw for the Free Press.  One third of the weekly newspaper's 2000 circulation is delivered by the US postal service, which is increasing the cost of mailing each paper by between 5 and 6 cents in three months time.  The cost of the Bloomfield Free Press had already been dropped by 25 cents to 75 cents due to the struggling economy, despite each copy costing $1 to post.

Could the non-profit model be the saviour the newspaper industry has been looking for? This question was prompted by a New York Times op-ed on 28 January, which proposed that America's "most valued sources of news" should become non-profit institutions funded by endowments. Animated responses to this article, both positive and negative, have appeared throughout the media since: from Steve Coll writing for the New Yorker who suggests that the rise of non-profits is verging on an inevitability, to Roy Greenslade in the Evening Standard who believes that the obliged political neutrality will be the stumbling block, to Jack Shafer of Slate who feels there is "something disconcerting about wanting to divorce the newspaper from market pressures." The Editors Weblog spoke to Paul Steiger, Editor-in-Chief and President of ProPublica, one of the largest American non-profit news ventures currently in existence, to find out more about how the non-profit model works for them. As a former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, Steiger has plenty of experience in the for-profit side of the industry as well.

How ProPublica works - free articles for partner papers

New York-based ProPublica uses its funding to support 28 staff, who produce investigative reporting which is then given, not sold, to news outlets. Editors and reporters decide which stories they want to pursue, and after beginning investigation into the issue, they will offer the story to a relevant publication. If the original choice of partner does not want it, ProPublica will find somebody else. Steiger said that ProPublica articles have appeared in about 20 newspapers, including the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, "a bunch of websites", as well as television news channels, such as CNN or CNBC. Stories appear on the ProPublica website shortly after publication by the chosen partner: ProPublica promises an appropriate period of exclusivity but Steiger explained that many partners are happy for the story to appear on ProPublica either immediately, or a matter of hours later. The site will always link to the partner that has the story, which is publicity for the partner and means that "people coming to our site will always know what we are up to."

Stories with moral force
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The general criteria for stories are those which "shine a spotlight on abuse or power of failure to uphold the public interest," according to Steiger. Reporters have broad beats, such as the effectiveness of government spending, health care, energy and the environment, voting rights or the impact of the legal system on the poor. These are national issues, which sometimes veer into international territory, but can also have a local focus. Steiger described one of the most important projects in the past year: an investigation of the risk to the water supply of deep drilling for national gas, which is undoubtedly a national and even international issue. But because reporters discovered a crucial government decision pending in New York state which would have put legislative and regulatory protocols into place to give the industry carte blanche to drill wherever it chose, ProPublica offered the story to the local Albany Times Union, and hence grabbed the attention of the governor and legislators. Government policy was consequently changed.

Propublica searches for stories that "shine a spotlight on abuse of power or failure to uphold the public interest"

Embracing multimedia, enhancing impact

ProPublica has embraced online distribution. The newsroom has "a huge online focus," stressed Steiger, "much larger than I expected when I got into this." He explained that the organisation has had "tremendous success" with outfits such as Politico or the Huffington Post, "they have given great distribution to some of our stories." Steiger is also enthusiastic about the multimedia advantages of online reporting: "the awareness of how online graphics and online interactive elements can enhance a story and enhance its impact is penetrating through the entire group," he commented. The older staff from print backgrounds are learning rapidly from the younger reporters with online backgrounds, " because that's where so much of the energy and the growth is."

Money doesn't buy you influence

One of the potential problems with privately funded non-profit news organisations is the risk that those who fund them might try to influence the news that comes out of them. Herb Sandler of the Sandler Foundation, ProPublica's principle founder, is also chairman of the ProPublica board, which leads an outsider to question his influence over the reporting.  Steiger was clear that "he and the board have agreed that they will have no advance knowledge of what we decide to cover. They will see it on the day of publication." Steiger ensures that reporters are shielded from influence from the board: although board members are invited to offer story ideas, Steiger emphasised that "these are to be funnelled only through me or through managing editor Stephen Engelberg so the reporters won't feel pressured by getting a call from a director." The Sandler Foundation has made a multi-year funding commitment. Other funders are the MacArthur Foundation, the Atlantic Philanthropies and Mary Graham's personal foundation.

"The board have agreed that they will have no advance knowledge of what we decide to cover. They will see it on the day of publication."

So, is this a model that could be implemented more widely?

Paul Steiger explained that his day-to-day job at ProPublica was no different because of the non-profit element of the site. So, is this a model that could be implemented more widely? It is clear that the business model that has supported newspapers until now no longer works. Instead of desperately trying to save and adapt the current business model, is it time for a new one altogether? The authors of the New York Times piece, David Swensen and Michael Schmidt, both from the Yale's investment fund, believe that "As long as newspapers remain for-profit enterprises, they will find no refuge from their financial problems... By endowing our most valued sources of news we would free them from the strictures of an obsolete business model and offer them a permanent place in society, like that of America's colleges and universities." A shining example (outside the US) of a paper not pressured by making money for shareholders is the Guardian, which is owned by a trust, and has been subsequently less affected by the recent financial downturn. The paper's website almost always tops the list of British newspapers in terms of reader numbers, and generally boasts more than the New York Times. The privilege to work without extreme financial pressure is something which would undoubtedly benefit the world's newspapers. One crucial point would be to ensure a long term endowment, as having to frantically search for funding every year would apply the same pressures as for a for profit.

An obvious issue to address is the cost: huge endowments would be needed to fund a large national newspaper. ProPublica has annual operating costs of around $10 million, which supports a staff of only 28. To support a newspaper such as the New York Times, you would need a $5 billion endowment, according to Swenson and Schmidt, or $2 billion for the Washington Post, according to Coll. Steiger's response was "how many people are there who have $5 billion to step up and set up an endowment, even for a wonderful property like the New York Times?"

"How many people are there who have $5 billion to step up and set up an endowment, even for a wonderful property like the New York Times?"

And he has a point. For a start, there is the question of what news is worthy to fund. Investigative reporting such as ProPublica's is one thing: asking people to fund journalism in the public interest seems a reasonable request.  Finding people to fund an entire newspaper - including sections such as entertainment, sport and crosswords  - seems harder. Steiger does, however, see some future for non-profit newsgathering. "I do think that it's possible that non-profit operations can play an expanded role and can fill in some of the gaps. But can the concept turn around a fundamental destruction of the basic business model of metro newspapers? No it can't." This is true: non-profit journalism is a way to prop-up existing structures, but will only make newspapers dependent on outsiders rather than encourage them to develop new ways to survive on their own. It does seem that many of the arguments for endowments are to ensure that newspapers not only survive, but survive just as they are now. Maybe this is the wrong way, maybe in fact they need to change.

Maybe newspapers need to change more fundamentally?

Jack Shafer makes the valid point that the capitalist system is what allowed the great newspapers to achieve success in the first place. "The Times, the Post, and the Wall Street Journal earned their reputations by competing in the marketplace, not by stroking philanthropic billionaires or foundations," he argues. Their dynamism and adaptability allowed them to gain their dominant positions in the market; to remove the financial impetus for such growth could have a detrimental effect on their innovation and efficacy in news distribution. It would also, crucially, change the way that they measure their success: an increased focus on story impact could be a positive outcome but this is not relevant for many types of news.

Newspapers need to change and develop, as they have over many years, in terms of what they cover, how they cover it, and how they reach their audience. The Internet has truly revolutionised the way people follow the news, and endowments should not be a means to stifle necessary change that should follow. Other strategies must also be investigated, such as an industry-wide decision to implement payment for online news. But for now, if newspapers are to function effectively, whether in print or online, as a crucial part of a democratic state, they need to find a way in which they can maintain sufficient staff and resources. Maybe a partially-funded model is the solution, at least in the short term: whereby the arguably more democratically valuable reporting is supported and protected by an endowment, leaving the papers to find a way to make up the rest of the revenue needed for other reporting and further costs. And hopefully out of these endeavours a new more durable business model could emerge. At least for the immediate future, there is an organisation like ProPublica to provide vital proactive investigative journalism to the American public.

The London Evening Standard is said to be exploring a new distribution model, in which it plans to hand out copies of the paper - normally priced at 50 pence - free or at heavily discounted rates at key locations in the city.

Under the new strategy, the paper will be handed out to homeward bound commuters in London's underground and train stations and some restaurants and theaters, reports the Guardian, from 8pm to 9pm. The strategy is to be rolled out in the month of March, after talks of the paper's sale to Alexander Lebedev, a Russian billionaire, are completed later this month.

The Manchester Evening News also adopted a part-free and part-paid distribution model in 2006. Though its distribution increased by 34%, there was doubt about the efficiency of a divided model.


Sources: Guardian , holdthefrontpage.com

Many regional newspapers are struggling to keep their heads above water in the current deluge of problems hitting the industry.  However the methods they are employing to stay afloat vary.

In the UK, the Heartland Evening News has changed its name to the Nuneaton News and adopted a part-free strategy - the paper is paid for on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday but delivered free on Wednesdays. Publishing director of Staffordshire Newspapers Richard Carey said: "As far as I am aware this is a unique venture and we see it is part of our ongoing service to our customers.

With the takeover of the London Evening Standard by Alexander Lebedev confirmed, his son Evgeny has spoken out about their vision for the publication.  The younger Lebedev has been appointed senior executive director by his father but will play a part time role in the running of the company, due to his having no experience in the newspaper industry.

"The plan is to have more serious coverage of the arts and culture and to engage Londoners more, and more coverage of events in London," he said, speaking to the Media Guardian. "Business and City news will also be extended. [Finance] is very important in these difficult times."  Lebedev also revealed plans to invest £25m in the Evening Standard over the coming three years, and asserted that the Russian duo will not be interfering in the Standard's conservative political stance.  Attempts to beef up the long-standing newspaper are in order to distinguish it from, and compete with, the two free London evening publications: the London Lite and the London Paper.
 

Two potentially revolutionary deals look set to be finalised today, and (apparently coincidentally) both will see Russian oligarchs taking the reins at long standing publications.  In the UK, Alexander Lebedev should become the first Russian to own a British newspaper when he confirms his acquisition of 76% of the Evening Standard.  Across the Channel, Alexandre Pougatchev (son of Serguei) awaits a court judgement in Lille to confirm his purchase of 85% of France Soir.

It will be interesting to see the effect that this influx of Eastern money has upon the editorial and political direction of both the newspapers.  Whilst Lebedev has promised that his influence on the Standard will be 'next to zero', speculation is already mounting.  The Russian has a history of opposition to former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and ran, albeit unsuccessfully, against pro-Kremlin Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

De Telegraaf, one of the Netherlands' leading newspapers, is aggressively moving ahead with its multi-platform publication strategy with the launch of a new Java application on 15 December and a new real-time stock quote service.

Lara Ankersmitt, Telegraaf.nl's Publisher, contacted the Editors Weblog to talk about De Telegraaf's new offering, charging for content, and attracting female users in The Netherlands.

Java application - building on growth

De Telegraaf has seen approximately 40% growth in the number of users accessing its mobile content over the past year since it redesigned its mobile site. Ankersmitt firmly believes that improving the user experience on the mobile platform is crucial to its success: "At the beginning of this year we redesigned the whole mobile site to get a better user experience and that has really worked. After the redesign we saw a growth in users and the time they spent on the site. People were reading more and more."  To maintain this momentum, De Telegraaf is launching a new Java application - after several months of testing - to improve the user experience on mobile and expand on the content provided.

What is also assisting this rapid growth in mobile take-up is mobile operators' introduction of a flat-fee subscription for the Internet on mobiles, costing approximately €10 a month. This reduction in cost has democratised the consumption of mobile content, moving it away from being a tool for just business people. "A few years ago most of the mobile traffic accessed financial news and came from Blackberries and that kind of device. However, since the mobile flat fee was introduced we have seen more normal phone traffic - such as Samsung and Nokia - and more traffic to our entertainment and news sections. The user group is expanding... Finance is still the most important user group, but this is changing."

The Java application will undoubtedly improve the user experience as it will make reading De Telegraaf content on a mobile similar to the user experience on the Internet. With this new application, people will be able to surf and navigate rather than simply scroll. It will contain all the same content as the Internet and digital version of the daily newspaper itself without cost (barring internet and an initial one-off cost).

However, there are legitimate concerns about how consumers will react to this new application. Users will have to request an SMS from De Telegraaf in order to download Java before they can access the new Java platform, furthermore they will have to a pay for the SMS on top of the usual cost of Internet access. These may seem like small issues, but they could prove to be significant. The Internet platform has been popular because it makes getting your daily news fix very easy. Consumers may find downloading Java too fiddly or time consuming for something that they can already get on their laptop or PC. Ankersmitt is aware of this, and it is part of the reason that after the initial one-off cost, the service will be free.

Gaining the technological knowledge

De Telegraaf works with an outside mobile consultancy company - Service2Media - and Ankersmitt believes that this is vital. Service2Media built the site, hosts it, and gives the newspaper knowledge on mobile. She reports, "We of course know everything about bringing people the news and we know what our readers like and dislike, and (Surface2Media) brings the technical expertise and shows us what is ahead for mobile. They help us with the strategy: when we should launch and when a technology will move into the mainstream" This relationship helps De Telegraaf plan strategically for the future and plan what its next move for its mobile platform will be. "Working with them helped us see the possibilities of mobile."

How do users consume mobile news?

De Telegraaf has been analysing user activity of its mobile platform, and has noticed significant differences between its mobile and website. The mobile platform usage peaks during the evening and is relatively flat and consistent during the day. On the website usage peaks during the day and declines during the evening. This study into user activity resulted in De Telegraaf keeping its website not only continually updated during the day, but also well into the evening.

Attracting female readers in a difficult market

Newspapers in The Netherlands do not traditionally tailor content for female readers, but De Telegraaf last year launched a magazine called "Woman" and following this launched a section on its Website dedicated to female readers. Other news providers who have launched this Java application are attracting approximately a 5% female readership, but De Telegraaf is already attracting up to 30%. This data reflects that De Telegraaf is rapidly moving towards attracting the same demographic split on its Mobile site as on its Website and print edition (approximately 54% male readership and 46% female readership). This female content will also be made available this week on the mobile platform.

Real-time news service

Alongside the introduction of the Java application, De Telegraaf is launching a real-time financial news service, whereby bond and share prices and graphics will be updated in real-time from all bourses.  This information will be available on the mobile site in the first quarter of next year, but it was launched last week on the website. Reuters is providing this information to De Financial Telegraaf (DFT).

The future - can news providers charge for content?

The big question facing all news organisations is how to monetise these new platforms. At this stage it does not look like advertising revenue will generate enough income to support the operation of running a newsroom: so what can newspapers do? De Telegraaf is considering testing the charging-for-content waters early next year. "We are thinking of launching some iPhone applications and maybe we will charge for these if we see success on the Java application. The user experience at the moment is OK. It's not brilliant because mobile is so small and there is a lot of scrolling for the user. There are two things: we want to get as many people as possible to download the Java application and we want to see if, and how, people are using it so w can learn from this. We will then use this knowledge to introduce something further down the line for the iPhone." Ankersmitt reports. Ankersmitt feels that there is scope for charging on the mobile platform if the user experience is good enough, but De Telegraaf has no plans for charging for its website content. Ankersmitt says on the issue, "I don't think it is realistic to charge people for the Website news because news they can get everywhere for free. So it is no use to us to charge people for reading our news. We have to make money from advertising."

Lesson learned

De Telegraaf moved into the mobile arena back in 2001, the whole process has been a steep learning curve for the broadsheet but it has so far navigated these uncharted waters successfully. To other newspapers considering entering the mobile arena, Ankersmitt says, "Think of how you can extend your brand with this new platform and find a good partner who can serve you for all the technical needs. It is vital to have a good and knowledgeable technical partner, we have one person focusing on the mobile platform, but our partner had 40 people focusing on it. They are always ahead of us technically speaking. Really think what you want to bring to this platform and what kind of news you want to present."

News International's The London Lite, despite distributing 100,000 less copies than its rival thelondonpaper, is continuing to draw in more readers, according to statistics from the National Readership survey.

The associated-owned free paper has a lead in readership of 69,000 over thelondonpaper over the past year.

Free daily Metro has also seen an increase in readership while the paid-for London-Evening Standard has fallen 13%, according to the study.

Source:  BrandRepublic

Ukrainian free evening daily, Vecherkom has been gaining momentum since its launch two years ago by Ukrainian publishing company Segodnya.  

The paper was launched with a targeted audience in mind - young readers who want faster news consumption.  The paper is less focused on politics and has fewer pages than other free dailies. Vecherkom also focuses on design, color and elasticity of layout for the advertisers.

Weekly newspaper, the Gravesend Reporter, is adopting the part-paid-for part-free model. The Archant-owned title will now reach 60,000 readers rather than the previous 6,000.

The newspaper is following in the footsteps of the Richmond and Twickenham Times and the Manchester Evening News.

The newspaper will now be delivered for free in certain boroughs but this will result in the closure of its ad-based free sister newspaper, the Gravesend and District Express, which will now be incorporated into the main title.

The newspaper will still be for sale in newsagents and retailers in the area, but for a reduced price of 25p (it previously sold for 40p).

Archant London executive managing director Enzo Testa, said that the move, "dovetails with implementation of the 'dual model' idea which we have successfully carried out with our other award winning Kentish Times' titles since 2005." The first title in the group to go part-paid-for part-free was The Bromley Times in 2005, followed in May 2006 by The Bexley Times, and earlier this year by the Dartford and Swanley Times.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk

UK regional publisher Newsquest announces that it will adopt a mixture of free and paid distribution to its weekly paid paper the Richmond & Twickenham Times, following in the footsteps of the Manchester Evening News according to Hold The Front Page.

Northcliffe Media announces the launch of 45 local websites in order to expand its Thisis network, which already offers numerous regional and urban sites. The move will be focused on hyperlocal services for Nottingham areas like Beeston, Hucknall, Sherwod and Long Eaton. The company's publication count will grow from 113 to 151 daily, weekly and free papers.

"If you rewind the clock to a few years ago, people would describe businesses like Northcliffe as primarily newspaper publishing businesses with a few websites. Now they'd describe us as a multimedia business," says Sean Mahon, the firm's marketing director.

The latest circulation figures for UK newspapers (June 30 to July 27) indicate that the papers with the largest circulation were the popular national weekly The Sun and Sunday title News of the World. The lowest circulation figures for that time period, meanwhile, were seen at the weekly up-market nationals The Scotsman and the Sunday Herald.

Here are the figures for the weeklies from www.publicitas.com:

Popular national newspapers:
The Sun: 2,896,330
Daily Mirror: 1,318,168
Daily Star: 605,261

Middle market national newspapers:
The Daily Mail: 2,077,545
Daily Express: 687,069

Up-market national newspapers:
The Daily Telegraph: 799,021
The Times: 547,381
The Guardian: 292,909
The Independent: 178,576
Financial Times: 130,695 (worldwide circulation: 423,575)
The Herald: 61,317
The Scotsman: 49,417

Evening London newspapers:
Evening Standard: 292,455

Free daily newspapers:
Metro (all editions): 1,359,261
The London Paper: 500,068
London Life: 401,543
City AM: 88,042

The figures for the Sunday publications are:

Popular national newspapers:
News of the World: 2,918,661
Sunday Mirror: 1,212,838
The People: 577,718
Daily Star Sunday: 308,606

Middle market national newspapers:
The Mail on Sunday: 1,956,981
Sunday Express: 604,282
Sunday Post: 380,728

Up-market national newspapers:
The Sunday Times: 985,848
The Sunday Telegraph: 580,909
The Observer: 375,776
Independent on Sunday: 151,301
Scotland on Sunday: 60,024
Sunday Herald: 43,374

Source: Publicitas

Back in 2001, the Guardian newspaper asked, "Where have all the women gone?", and it is a question that has plagued the editors of leading British newspapers for the past two decades as only 41% of women - 10.3 million - read a daily UK newspaper (October to March 2008).
 
Genevieve Roberts, a former features writer and reporter for The Independent, now an advertising planner for McCann Erickson on the Evening Standard account, told me: "Almost every newspaper is trying to appeal to female readers. In crude commercial terms, females are the main shoppers in more than 50% of households, and advertisers want to appeal to people who shop so they have the opportunity to buy their product."

This is the crux of the issue, advertising is now more than ever driving the bottom-line of newspapers, and it is crucial that newspapers attract the right demographic to appeal to advertising agencies and businesses.

Without female readers, the advertisers will look elsewhere.

The Glossy Magazine Approach

Newspapers are tackling this problem in two distinctly different ways: the glossy/gossip magazine approach and the female interest approach.

Daily Mirror
(From July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 43%)

Daily Mirror Editor Richard Wallace has discretely changed the focus of the newspaper from the traditional male-orientated tabloid to appeal to women who buy popular weekly gossip magazines.

Andrew Higton, a sub-editor at The Mirror, told me that this marketing approach has involved a significant change in culture for the staff. Editors, reporters and sub-editors are often told to make copy more "female-friendly". This new approach is applied at all levels, for example, when President Nicolas Sarkozy of France visited the UK, subs were told to focus much of the story on Carla Brunei's outfits.

The Daily Mirror's shift towards the glossy magazine style has also involved changing the look of the whole newspaper in an attempt to make it more visually appealing to the female market. The newspaper has now gone full-colour, redesigned its features pages, covers female issues such as family life and children, and it contains more celebrity-focused pictures alongside the news stories.

Daily Express

This is also the approach that Richard Desmond's Daily Express is following. The newspaper is using its experience in the magazine market (Richard Desmond is the proprietor of the increasingly popular weekly glossy magazine, "OK!") to attract women readers. It is also the path that several of the new free daily newspapers are following, such as The London Paper, which regularly features celebrity stories on its front page.

The Female Interest Approach

Daily Mail

However, Helen Lewis, sub-editor at the Daily Mail, said to me that she is not so sure that the glossy magazine route is correct. She told me, "The problem lies in conflating 'female interest' with 'celebrity story', and although it's been a successful formula, I think it's one that's coming to the end of its usefulness in terms of shifting copies."

The Daily Mail is the most successful newspaper in the UK in terms of attracting female readers. In 1995 (Jan to Dec) 49% of its readers were female, in 2006 (Jan to Dec) this had grown to 52% and the figures for 2007 show that it had held onto this 52% demographic. The Daily Mail enjoys more female than male readers. However, it has not completely gone down the celebrity gossip/magazine style. Undoubtedly it does feature these kinds of stories, but it balances this with news stories and a style proven to attract female readers. According to the National Readership Survey, women care about news - it being their "main reason for purchase" - but they like to be told pretty briskly what has happened, but not what it all may or may not mean. The survey also indicates that British women are turned off by sport and are not too keen on finance.

A quick glance at the Daily Mail after reading this data shows how the Daily Mail has struck the right balance to appeal to the female demographic.

Genevieve Roberts told me during an interview on this issue: "In the UK, the Daily Mail has the highest percentage of female readers, and unsurprisingly, this increases its appeal for advertisers."

The Times
(From July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 42%)

The Times deliberately targets females with its T2 supplement magazine, just as the Guardian (from July 2007 to December 2007: Female = 46%) targets females with its supplement magazine, G2.

These magazins are not aimed solely at women, but The Times' chose to advertise to females when it re-launched the supplement, indicating the importance of female readers to this publication. In a £1m-plus campaign, they targeted a cross-section of women: professionals, housewives and mothers.

Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal Online appears to agree with The Times and the Daily Mail's approach for attracting female readers. In May of this year it launched a new section aimed at a female audience, however, it is also not going down the glossy magazine route. WSJ Online executive editor Alan Murray told Reuters, "Our experience has shown us that there are a lot of business and professional women out there who crave not just fashion and beauty advice, but an intelligent news-oriented community where they can share experiences and swap ideas."

Early indicators point to the Female Interest Approach as having the most success, but only time will tell which strategy works in the long run. The battle lines have been drawn in one of the world's most aggressive newspaper markets, and it is certainly a battle that other editors will watch with interest.

Sources: Newspaper Marketing Agency, Brand Republic, Reuters

Though there are economic strains on the journalism industry, Paul Myners, chairman of Guardian Media Group, remarked that journalists are not driven out of the industry, but instead are working on other mediums, such as blogs, radio, and local television, which reinforces a previous statement by Mediashift.

"The type of people doing work which might broadly be described as journalistic, may not have necessarily decreased to the extent of the proportion who are working in the newspaper industry," said Myner.  "Someone who was previously described as a journalist who sat at a typewriter, now podcasts, now speaks to video, now blogs online. It is a more challenging and appealing job.

Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), said otherwise: "The plight of staff in the newspaper industry should not be overshadowed by increased new media opportunities for journalists."

He argued that staff "are spread ever more thinly across more media" and that there are "a lack of resources and understaffing." with a smaller number of journalists trying to deliver more content in more platforms.

Concurrently, the U.S. has suffered the biggest staff drop this year. Our colleague Robb Montgomery from Visual Editors has captured the hard times through images here and here.

However, Myners noted that in the last 12 months, the Guardian Media Group appointed 60 new journalists to its national titles in order to further their digital content, since their readership is moving online. According to Myners, more people read the Guardian's US website than read the print versions in the UK, Guardian.co.uk  was the most popular UK newspaper website in February with 19,519,923 unique users, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Electronic (ABCE).

"We have gone from being a provincial newspaper... to an international, liberal voice on the web," he said.

He added that "the proportion of journalists at the Observer and Guardian covering international news has increased."

But Myners cautioned that the declining economy will lead to more regional newspaper mergers and more free sheets, which does not rule out the Manchester Evening News from being completely free in the city center yet being sold on the outskirts.

"It is an economic model which accurately reflects the cost of distribution," Myners said.

However, the freesheet model does not seem to be doing significantly better than traditional newspapers.

Source: Journalism.co.uk ,Press Gazette