NDM: The decline in newspapers - MM case studies

The New Day

The New Day was a brand new newspaper launched by institution Trinity Mirror in 2016 - but it folded after just two months. Read the feature: 'A New Day for British journalism' on page 6 of Media Magazine 57 (our Media Magazine archive is here) and complete the following tasks on your blog:

1) What was the New Day trying to achieve?
The New Day was launched to tap into a new market. Alison Phillips, the paper’s Editor, said: This paper has been created as a result of customer insight and is the first newspaper designed for people’s modern lifestyles.

2) List the key statistics on the first page: how many people buy newspapers in the UK? How has this declined in the last year?

• Over a million people have stopped buying a newspaper in the past two years
• Phillips clarified her position on 4 March 2016 at the end of the newspaper’s first week: About six million people buy a newspaper in Britain every day

3) What audience were the New Day trying to attract?
As said, they have been designed for people’s modern lifestyles. It is targeted at both women and men, pitched at people aged 35 to 55, people who want a more modern approach to news.

4) Why do you think the New Day failed so spectacularly? There are several possible reasons listed in the article but do develop your own opinion here as well.
During the first month of its publication it failed to reach its target of 200,000; after starting around 150,000, sales fell to 90,000. One of the main reason was how it was free for a day, 25p for a while and then 50p (with a short reversion to 25p in between). What were potential buyers (not to mention retailers) supposed to make of that? Customers were confused and may have been put off by this. Phillips was also hobbled by the early deadline. The paper had to be printed on presses used by the Daily Mirror and was therefore published early in the evening. Result: no breaking news and no sports results. 

(https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/may/05/why-the-new-day-didnt-work-and-had-no-hope-of-working)

The Guardian
The Guardian is another British newspaper struggling with a steep decline in print sales. However, the Guardian's survival strategy has been built around a global online approach to digital content. 

Read the feature: 'Can The Guardian survive in a changing media landscape?' on page 9 of Media Magazine 57 and complete the following tasks on your blog: 

1a) How many unique digital browsers used the Guardian website in June 2016? The Guardian has over 120 million monthly unique browsers and a June 2016 daily average of almost 9 million unique browsers, only about one third of whom are from the UK

1b) What are The Guardian's latest print sales figures? The print circulation of the Guardian was only 161,000. It is the poor relation in print sales of quality national dailies, way behind the Daily Telegraph (472,000). Indeed, it is closer to the recently closed Independent which had a circulation of just 54,000.

1d) In terms of finances, how much did the Guardian lose in 2015?  In the course of 2015, the Guardian reportedly lost ‘around £70 million, with slower-than-expected digital ad sales failing to offset a continued slump in revenue from print.’

2) What has been The Guardian's strategy for reversing this decline?
The Guardians strategy for reversing their decline is by developing its ability to deliver 24-hour rolling coverage of major world news events. 

3) What global event did The Guardian's digital coverage win awards for?
The Guardian’s reporting on the Paris attacks won praise from the Society of Editors. At their Press Awards for 2015, the Guardian was winner of the Website of the Year.

4) In your opinion, will the global website strategy be enough to save The Guardian?
I feel that The Guardian's global website strategy could easily save them. The focus on digital technology is allowing The Guardian to advance and adapt to the media landscape of today.
Remember you also have the ongoing work on the effect of online technology to complete this week. Pay particular attention to the quotesand statistics in all this work - these will be vital in lifting your MEST3 Section B essays into the A/A* bracket.