Loyalty to Irish newspapers still evident

Despite the fall in sales, consumers still spent €7m every week to purchase national titles

IN A week when it was confirmed the Sunday Tribunewill not be published again, the constant refrain these days is that all newspapers are heading for the graveyard. However, the latest circulation and readership figures show newspapers remain a very powerful media force.

Newspaper sales did fall in 2010, but consumers still parted with €7 million every week to purchase a national title. The latest data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations shows that, on average, 570,000 daily newspapers are bought in the Republic from Monday to Saturday. On Sunday, this increases to 900,000. For provincial weeklies, the total number purchased is 480,000.

That’s a total of 4.8 million buying decisions every week for a newsprint product. According to the JNRS survey which monitors newspaper reading habits, 84 per cent of the adult population regularly read paid-for daily or Sunday newspapers. An estimated 1.8 million adults regularly read a daily newspaper, and 2.4 million adults regularly read a Sunday newspaper.

And it’s not just older people picking up a newspaper. Some 80 per cent of 19-24-year-olds read newspapers regularly, and 77 per cent of 15-18-year-olds read newspapers regularly.

While the latest readership figures represent a slight decline since the last survey, the National Newspapers of Ireland (NNI) trade body says the survey should be seen in a positive light.

“Considering the economic climate that exists, the fact that readership has declined by less than per cent in the past two years is a remarkable demonstration of the loyalty that Irish people have to their newspapers,” says NNI director Frank Cullen.

“During those two years, Ireland’s population has been declining steadily, mainly as a result of emigration, while rising unemployment means there is less opportunity to share newspapers in offices and other working environments. If there are fewer people reading newspapers, it’s because there are fewer people to read them. It’s that simple. The fact that three million people do still read our titles is fantastic news, and that’s how we see it.”

Liam Kavanagh, managing director of The Irish Times, says he is very confident about the future of the newspaper business in Ireland. "What we are finding is that the engagement with our readers is stronger than ever," he says. "There has been a small dip in readership, but when you analyse the data over three years and not just one year we are stronger than ever.

“The print and online parts of our business work hand in hand. There have been 20,000 downloads for our iPhone app and we have about 2,000 subscribers to our e-paper. But the printed medium is still the biggest part of our business.”

Recently, The Irish Timeshas been publishing some editorial output only in the newspaper and not on the free website, irishtimes.com, which attracts 285,000 unique users daily. According to Kavanagh: "It's an experiment. The online audience is significantly different to the print reader, and we are trialling what our online audience and print audiences look at. We have seen growth in newspaper sales during the general election campaign, and we will review how much of the growth was due to not posting certain writers on the website."

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There are no Meteor Music Awards this year after the mobile phone operator decided to cease sponsoring the event. However, the brand, which is 10 years old, says the awards will return in 2012, with Meteor as the primary sponsor.

The televised awards were Meteor’s most visible sponsorship and tied in with the company’s strategy of recruiting younger customers. According to Meadhbh Quinn, head of brand and advertising: “Sponsorship has been a very important part of building the Meteor brand. Among 18-24-year-olds, the Meteors had the highest recall of any other sponsorship in the country.”

Quinn says Meteor pulled the plug this year after the company decided the format needed to be changed, with a view to extending the sponsorship beyond a single event. “We want to stay in the music space. We feel music has done us a lot of favours, and we will be working with MCD to bring back the awards next year using the existing format as a platform.”

Meteor also sponsors Munster Rugby, and this weekend is supporting the fifth annual Father Ted Festival in Inishowen, an event spawned from the TV series of the same name.

Mobile phone firms are among the biggest advertisers in the country, with the seven operators spending an estimated €47 million between them in 2010.

Meteor’s current television commercial is focused on its international pricing tariffs. It’s a sign of just how much the mobile telecoms market has changed since Meteor was launched in 2001 that software applications such as Skype – which allow users to make voice calls over the internet – are now competitors.

Says Quinn: “Average revenue per user is down for all the mobile operators. People just don’t have the same levels of disposable income that they did. I think 2011 will continue to be as difficult as 2010. Offering value is absolutely vital for big consumer brands these days.”

siobhan@businessplus.ie