WA’s two tabloids, The West Australian and Sunday Times, are in a protracted circulation slump and there are concerns that it may be the beginning, not the end, of the downturn.
WA’s two tabloids, The West Australian and Sunday Times, are in a protracted circulation slump and there are concerns that it may be the beginning, not the end, of the downturn.
Both these long running cash cows are seeing circulation stagnate or even fall, after near constant growth since the early post-war years.
Something fundamental seems to have changed over the last couple of years, something which neither colour nor adoption of a magazine format has been able to reverse.
Both have dabbled with peripheral moves to counter this turnaround that emerged in 1998, but neither paper seems to have fully come to grips with new market realities or put up effective counter strategies to restart circulation growth.
The Times recently offered itself free to readers who subscribed to national daily, The Australian, which, like The Times, belongs to News Ltd.
And this weekend it was being given away at wineries as part of the Margaret River Wine Festival.
The West offered new home delivery customers a cut-price paper – 30 per cent off - over the Olympics.
But their problems appear far deeper when demographic trends are taken into account.
WA’s population since 1997 has jumped about 80,000 – 30,000-odd potential readers.
What’s more West Aussies are now generally better educated than 50, 30, or even 15 years ago.
Over that time WA has gained more university and TAFE graduates and more children now finish TEE. Yet both papers are struggling to maintain circulation let alone grow it.
What’s needed is a long hard look at both these determining factors.
Instead The Times appears to have opted for a simplistic approach by using selective short-term statistical comparisons and highlighting their rival’s headaches.
This was done in its October 22 issue, where, under the headline, “Readers Move to the Times”, it said: “The Sunday Times has increased its circulation, defying a predominantly downward trend nationwide.
“In the 12 months to the end of September, the circulation rose to 343,692 – up 1382, or 0.40 per cent.
“For the same period, The West Australian’s circulation, Monday to Friday fell to 210,260, a hefty drop of 8038, or 3.68 per cent. The Saturday edition fell by 6042 to 380,978, a drop of 1.56 per cent.”
Times managing director David Maguire said: “The Sunday Times continued to achieve circulation gains following the move to full colour.”
Five days earlier in a Sydney newsletter, Mediaweek, West editor, Brian Rogers, let fly, saying: “News Ltd. has spent a hell of a lot promoting The Sunday Times but it just held its circulation in the last audit. It gained 26 copies.”
Mediaweek showed The Times at 344,159 in the six months to June, while The West lost 4274 copies to 217,008 Monday to Friday and slipped Saturdays 1520 to 388,290.
“News Ltd wouldn’t be too thrilled about gaining 26 copies considering the promotion they put into it,” Rogers said.
But he only gave his rivals a single barrel when he could have blasted them with two.
It seems his statistics department hasn’t kept him abreast of what’s been happening to his rival over a longer term.
In 1997 when The Times‚ was a black-and-white from the FJ Holden era it regularly exceeded 350,000. Now, three years and 80,000 West Aussies on, and $70 million colour presses, management boasts sales are 343,692.
Neither paper publishes per-capital sales figures, the real performance measure. They instead publicise figures of where they stood in say July compared some other month, thereby ignoring a longer-term context.
Both would be wise to measure sales against WA’s population levels for each year from say 1950 and 2000. That may be an instructive exercise.
My guess is per capita sales began tumbling for both some time ago and if so that means their bosses need start on some hard, clear, and imaginative thinking.
Falling sales with a rising population suggests readers are finding neither paper very gripping.
Small traders - those who came into existence decades ago, during WA’s FJ Holden era, because of Readers Mart - complain of advertising costs, which probably explains why the innovative give-away-an-ad Quokka has sky-rocketed.
I recently said to an insider I was surprised that neither tabloid hadn’t tried to buy-out Quokka to perhaps shut it down to help boost their advertising.
“That’s happened,” my contact said.
He said one had approached Quokka’s proprietors but they wouldn’t sell.
Retired Times editor Don Smith – also a former West editor – posted circulation figures on a notice board each week to keep staff informed.
But he had something to boast about as circulation steadily rose in his days to 350,000 plus, and sometimes much higher.
His successor, Brian Crisp, probably hopes he hadn’t inherited this quaint Goldfields custom even though through heavy promotional spending, as Brian Rogers noted, the Times managed to briefly stop the slide at around 344,000.
Over some recent weeks sales slid another 10,000.
Both these long running cash cows are seeing circulation stagnate or even fall, after near constant growth since the early post-war years.
Something fundamental seems to have changed over the last couple of years, something which neither colour nor adoption of a magazine format has been able to reverse.
Both have dabbled with peripheral moves to counter this turnaround that emerged in 1998, but neither paper seems to have fully come to grips with new market realities or put up effective counter strategies to restart circulation growth.
The Times recently offered itself free to readers who subscribed to national daily, The Australian, which, like The Times, belongs to News Ltd.
And this weekend it was being given away at wineries as part of the Margaret River Wine Festival.
The West offered new home delivery customers a cut-price paper – 30 per cent off - over the Olympics.
But their problems appear far deeper when demographic trends are taken into account.
WA’s population since 1997 has jumped about 80,000 – 30,000-odd potential readers.
What’s more West Aussies are now generally better educated than 50, 30, or even 15 years ago.
Over that time WA has gained more university and TAFE graduates and more children now finish TEE. Yet both papers are struggling to maintain circulation let alone grow it.
What’s needed is a long hard look at both these determining factors.
Instead The Times appears to have opted for a simplistic approach by using selective short-term statistical comparisons and highlighting their rival’s headaches.
This was done in its October 22 issue, where, under the headline, “Readers Move to the Times”, it said: “The Sunday Times has increased its circulation, defying a predominantly downward trend nationwide.
“In the 12 months to the end of September, the circulation rose to 343,692 – up 1382, or 0.40 per cent.
“For the same period, The West Australian’s circulation, Monday to Friday fell to 210,260, a hefty drop of 8038, or 3.68 per cent. The Saturday edition fell by 6042 to 380,978, a drop of 1.56 per cent.”
Times managing director David Maguire said: “The Sunday Times continued to achieve circulation gains following the move to full colour.”
Five days earlier in a Sydney newsletter, Mediaweek, West editor, Brian Rogers, let fly, saying: “News Ltd. has spent a hell of a lot promoting The Sunday Times but it just held its circulation in the last audit. It gained 26 copies.”
Mediaweek showed The Times at 344,159 in the six months to June, while The West lost 4274 copies to 217,008 Monday to Friday and slipped Saturdays 1520 to 388,290.
“News Ltd wouldn’t be too thrilled about gaining 26 copies considering the promotion they put into it,” Rogers said.
But he only gave his rivals a single barrel when he could have blasted them with two.
It seems his statistics department hasn’t kept him abreast of what’s been happening to his rival over a longer term.
In 1997 when The Times‚ was a black-and-white from the FJ Holden era it regularly exceeded 350,000. Now, three years and 80,000 West Aussies on, and $70 million colour presses, management boasts sales are 343,692.
Neither paper publishes per-capital sales figures, the real performance measure. They instead publicise figures of where they stood in say July compared some other month, thereby ignoring a longer-term context.
Both would be wise to measure sales against WA’s population levels for each year from say 1950 and 2000. That may be an instructive exercise.
My guess is per capita sales began tumbling for both some time ago and if so that means their bosses need start on some hard, clear, and imaginative thinking.
Falling sales with a rising population suggests readers are finding neither paper very gripping.
Small traders - those who came into existence decades ago, during WA’s FJ Holden era, because of Readers Mart - complain of advertising costs, which probably explains why the innovative give-away-an-ad Quokka has sky-rocketed.
I recently said to an insider I was surprised that neither tabloid hadn’t tried to buy-out Quokka to perhaps shut it down to help boost their advertising.
“That’s happened,” my contact said.
He said one had approached Quokka’s proprietors but they wouldn’t sell.
Retired Times editor Don Smith – also a former West editor – posted circulation figures on a notice board each week to keep staff informed.
But he had something to boast about as circulation steadily rose in his days to 350,000 plus, and sometimes much higher.
His successor, Brian Crisp, probably hopes he hadn’t inherited this quaint Goldfields custom even though through heavy promotional spending, as Brian Rogers noted, the Times managed to briefly stop the slide at around 344,000.
Over some recent weeks sales slid another 10,000.
