Big squeeze as rising newsprint costs hit papers

MEDIA & MARKETING:It makes sense at every level for newspapers to use less newsprint

OF ALL the margin-squeezing stresses on the newspaper industry in recent years, comparatively little attention has been paid to the cost of newsprint – the price of the paper on which these words are printed. But newsprint costs have had a substantial influence on papers’ format and design and are likely to continue to do so.

Guardianeditor Alan Rusbridger put it bluntly when addressing readers last month: "We have to save on the cost of paper, ink and production."

Explaining the rationale for cutting the number of pages in its comment, obituary and sport sections, Rusbridger wrote that the Guardian,"like every newspaper in the world", faced significant financial pressures from the digital revolution, economic downturn and rising cost of newsprint.

After a double-digit increase last year, newsprint prices in Ireland are expected to moderate and possibly even decrease in 2012. Demand for recycled newsprint from Chinese and Indian manufacturers – the spur for 2011’s cost surge – remains high, but demand from the newspaper industry in Europe and the US has softened, partly due to production cuts.

While suppliers want fresh price increases, it is anticipated British media groups News International and the Daily Mail and General Trust will be successful in negotiating reduced prices, and the Irish market will likely follow in their wake.

The Daily Mailowner recently highlighted a 12 per cent increase in its newsprint costs for the year to October, which added £18 million (€21.6 million) to its bill, taking it to £174 million. It won't want a repeat of that in 2012.

In November, meanwhile, Independent News Media said Irish newsprint and ink prices had increased 30 per cent year-on-year, but that “proactive management of paginations and outputs” had mitigated the rise in costs at the group to 6 per cent.

Cutting pages and shortening print runs is just the beginning. In the US, upward pressure on newsprint prices in the last decade sparked design changes at some of its biggest titles: The Wall Street Journalled the way, cutting the width of its pages from 15 inches to 12 inches from January 2007, with the New York Timesfollowing suit six months later.

Slimming down had the added advantage of improving the readability of the physical product, particularly for commuters. US broadsheets are now noticeably more slender than, say, The Irish Times, which, at more than 15.5 inches wide, is the widest broadsheet in Britain and Ireland.

For a newspaper like the Guardian, which has long since downsized to the inbetweener Berliner format, reducing the number of pages in its print edition to save money is also the next logical step in its "digital first" policy. But newspapers don't have to espouse a "digital first" policy for it to make sense to use less newsprint.

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What do television presenter Liz Bonnin, Young Apprenticeand the dowager countess of Grantham have in common?

They have all been praised in an otherwise largely critical BBC-commissioned report for their “positive” contribution to how people of different ages are portrayed on television.

Downton Abbey'sdowager countess (Maggie Smith) was among a select group of drama faces perceived as "strong characters who did not seem to deteriorate as they aged", while the nine focus groups consulted said teen reality spin-off Young Apprenticeillustrated "confident and professional young people who could be inspiring to others".

At the age of 35, Bonnin, who began her career on RTÉ, will presumably have been pleased to see her name cited by a broadcast expert as an example of a "younger presenter" providing a "positive role model for young people", through her hosting duties on science magazine show Bang Goes the Theory.

Overall, the Serving All Agesreport wasn't exactly glowing about broadcasters' depiction of either older or younger people, which it felt was overly dependent on "fuddy duddy" and "young tearaway" stereotypes.

The big problem in coverage of middle-aged people was that of the “disappearing woman”. While focus-group participants felt men were allowed to grow old gracefully on screen, there were concerns that women aged 40-plus were destined to be “airbrushed” out.

This gives Bonnin a mere five years before she swerves from a position as a “positive role model for young people” to a place on the at-risk list of more mature women who suddenly, as the report puts it, develop a “face for radio” in the eyes of television executives – unless, of course, this double age-sex prejudice is obliterated in the meantime.