MEDIA AND MARKETING:Beset with falling sales, the Sunday paper hopes a makeover will win readers back
IT'S A case of back to the future for the Sunday Tribuneas the title seeks to stem falling circulation. From September, the broadsheet will revert to its original tabloid format of 30 years ago.
The new Tribunewill be the same size as a tabloid but the newspaper's executives prefer to describe the new shape as "compact". Out will go the plethora of separate sections for news, business and sport. Instead, the new Tribunewill number 104 compact pages and feature a 64-page glossy magazine aimed at women readers.
Audit bureau of circulation figures released this week show the newspaper had average sales of 54,500 copies in the first half of 2010. That’s down from 65,700 in the corresponding period last year, and down from 60,300 in the second half of 2009.
The Tribuneisn't the only Sunday newspaper to take a circulation hit due to the recession. ABC data shows that overall Sunday newspaper sales have declined by 5 per cent in the past year. But with a 17 per cent circulation decline, the Tribuneis the worst performer in the sector, and now an attempt is being made to stop the rot.
The Sunday Tribune'soriginal incarnation as a compact didn't last long. It was changed to a broadsheet format about a year after it launched and, with the addition of a glossy magazine, the title achieved weekly sales of more than 100,000 before settling down at about the 90,000 level.
Over the past decade, the Tribunehas faced a market squeeze. In the upmarket space, the Sunday Times, backed by the financial might of News Corporation, has been on a relentless growth curve. Though the Times'scirculation is down 4 per cent year on year, its weekly sale now stands at 112,000 copies.
In the mid-market space, where the Tribunealso seeks buyers, the Irish Mail on Sundaynow has an average sale of 122,000 copies. Like the Sunday Times, the Mailbenefits from a marketing spend that Tribunemanaging director Michael Roche can only dream about.
The Sunday Tribuneis controlled by Independent News & Media, which has shown remarkable patience with the title. Filed accounts for Tribune Newspapers plc show the newspaper incurred a trading loss of €5 million in 2008. The year-end deficit in shareholders' funds was €51 million, with Independent News & Media's outstanding loans to the Tribuneamounting to €15 million, in addition to another €29 million owing to it in preference shares and deferred dividends.
Industry observers can only speculate as to why Independent News & Media has been prepared to keep the Tribuneon life-support for so long. Chief executive Gavin O'Reilly, like his father before him, would seem to be a fan and the Tribunealso has a friend at the Independent court in the shape of Denis O'Brien, who got to know the title well when he worked with Tony Ryan, a Tribuneinvestor before Independent arrived on the scene.
While Independent News & Media has been willing to prop up the title, there has been no investment in the paper. So Roche has been trying to balance the books by reducing the cost base. As the cutbacks have taken hold, the newspaper has been failing what Tribuneinsiders call the "pinch test", ie the package appears light to shop buyers compared to some alternatives.
The change to compact format is being facilitated by the transfer of the Tribune'sprinting to Independent News & Media's plant in Newry. This will give it more colour pages and better printing slots. The hope is the glossy magazine will attract some fashion and cosmetics advertising.
Tribuneexecutives believe the new format and magazine will garner a 5,000 lift in sales. This can be achieved, they believe, by holding on to the title's core readers while persuading casual purchasers to buy the newspaper more regularly. However, some observers wonder if the change will make a difference.
Media buyer David Hayes of the ad agency Mediaedge:CIA said: "It's the ingredients that are wrong in the Tribune, not the format. In its heyday, the Tribunewas the newspaper for the chattering classes in Dublin. But in recent years it has been overshadowed by the Sunday Times. The Tribunestill does have that Dublin AB audience, but a lot less of it. What it needs is money spent on it."
The Timesof London has shown it is possible to produce an intelligent newspaper in a compact format that upmarket readers will warm to. In Ireland though, consumers still associate compact/tabloid with a downmarket or mid-market newspaper, while broadsheets are perceived as upmarket.
The Tribunetried to break that mould 30 years ago and is now trying again. If nothing else, curiosity from former readers should ensure its ABC figure for the second half of this year is an improvement on the all-time low in the first half.
