The British Newspaper Industry: The Future of the Regional Press

252 Pages·2016·0.771 MB·English

by  John Hill (auth.)

The British Newspaper
Industry
The Future of the Regional Press
John Hill
The British Newspaper Industry
This page intentionally left blank
The British Newspaper
Industry
The Future of the Regional Press
John Hill
Independent researcher, UK
© John Hill 2016
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2016 978-1-137-56896-0
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identifi ed as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2016 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire, RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-57444-5 ISBN 978-1-137-56897-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-56897-7
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India.
In loving memory of John Hill (1935 –2015)
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Figures viii
List of Tables x
Introduction 1
1 The Persistence of a Local Press: A Folk Memory? 7
2 Communities and Their Media 11
3 Communities: What They are 23
4 The History of a Crisis: Internal Factors 31
5 The History of a Crisis: External Factors 41
6 The Present State of Play 52
7 Newspapers in Decline 69
8 The Growth of Alternative Media 80
9 Anticipating the Future 91
10 Transitioning to a New Order 103
11 Generic Strategies 113
12 Strategies for a Turbulent Future? 125
13 The Mechanisms of Local Media 140
14 Newspaper Production 149
15 Digital Printing 153
16 Marketing Advertisement Space 162
17 Marketing the Product 170
18 Resource Partitioning 178
19 Value Activities 190
20 The Current State of Play 198
21 The Endgame? 210
Notes 223
Index 227
vii
List of Figures
1.1 Percentage distribution of newspaper launches (1650–1949) 9
2.1 Disposable family income at constant prices 19
2.2 Percentage of households that are ‘well-integrated’ 21
3.1 Commitment to the community (%) 25
3.2 Attitudes to local media (%) 26
6.1 The Pitkethly diagram 52
6.2 Information/entertainment ratios in local media 55
6.3 Community commitment in family units 57
6.4 Strategy formulation model 59
6.5 Detailed model of types of content 61
7.1 The decline of national newspaper sales over ten years 75
8.1 Mail volume per head of population (2011) 85
8.2 Year-on-year changes in mail volumes and revenues
(2010–11) 86
11.1 Strategy formulation model 115
12.1 Profiles of local media 137
12.2 The Strategy Clock 138
13.1 Newspaper publishing flowchart 143
15.1 Newspaper sales graph per quarter hour 156
15.2 Copy stacking in traditional sequence running 157
15.3 Sequence running on a digital press 158
15.4 Split running on a digital press 160
17.1 Matrix of message longevity and price 177
18.1 The resource curve 181
18.2 Three-dimensional Ansoff model 184
18.3 The positions of new needs, new products and
new markets 188
19.1 The importance of local media 193
viii
List of Figures ix
20.1 Platforms used for news nowadays 198
20.2 Local news consumption 199
20.3 Personal importance of local news 200
20.4 Attributes of television news sources 201
20.5 Attributes of newspaper news sources 202
20.6 Attributes of radio news sources 203
20.7 Attributes of website and app news sources 205