By Harry Mottram: To paraphrase Bill Clinton’s famous quote, ‘It’s the internet stupid’. Ever since people could get their news and information on the internet instead of the media, email instead of writing letters or open a website instead of placing an advert in a publication the demand for newsprint has declined. Arguably when it comes to newspapers and magazines the decline began as far back as the 1920s when newspaper barons like Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe and Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook objected to the BBC Radio’s news broadcasts. They claimed that some readers wouldn’t bother buying a paper and instead relied on the radio. By the late 1940s when TV began also put out news and sports programmes newspapers took another hit but their coverage was still more comprehensive than the broadcasters.
In the 1990s as the internet began to emerge as a leading source of news, information, advertising and buying online that was when newspaper circulation began to really decline and by the early 2000s titles began to fold. Not always from fewer readers but fewer adverts. Print Week reported this month on another title going to the wall despite being in print since 1865. Dominic Bernard reported: “The South London Press, an historic weekly paper that survived 160 years in print, closed suddenly last week. Staff were told on 20 May to stop working, and that their contracts had been terminated, according to the Press Gazette, at which point the paper’s website was shut down. The paper’s final print edition went out on 23 May, also the final day on which its X feed was updated. It is believed to have entered into insolvency proceedings, the Press Gazette reported. The South London Press, particularly known for high quality sports journalism and original journalism covering core boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark, Lambeth and Wandsworth, had been printed twice weekly as recently as 2018.”
The trade journal of the newspaper industry Press Gazette reported that since 2005 around 293 titles have closed although ICSM believes the figure is higher – and with the Shetland Times up sale and The South London Press shut down that figure is likely to increase. And it’s not just newspapers and their staff and printers, but also their suppliers such as the paper and pulp mills, the ink manufactures and of course the journalists and freelancers who rely on the work generated by a single newspaper.
Ian Carrotte of ICSM whose members include publishes of newspapers and associated publications said the decline was inevitable but not terminal. He said: “There is a public thirst for long form reading whether online or in print. Publications like Private Eye, The Week and The Economist still sell hundreds of thousands of copies so the death of print has been greatly exaggerated – so there is hope. At ICSM we are concerned about keeping our members solvent by avoiding bad debts and late payers, so it is wise to not allow a newspaper to take longer to pay than your won credit terms.”
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