Great Matt Welch piece on newspapers and the current battle that is going on in Chicago by the Trib and Sun Times for young readers of their Red Streak and Red Eye papers. Personally, I think they are both trash and find it amusing that they have been giving these papers out for free for at least 5-6 months now. Some people do really like them, but we will see if they will pony up a quarter a day once the freebies stop. Oh how papers want to get their hands on some young readers.
In newspaperville, all eyes are on Chicago. Last June, the Chicago Tribune decided its double-digit profit margins and 300,000 circulation lead over the Sun-Times was no longer enough. "In newspapers, our future success will depend on younger readers," Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune Co. president and CEO, told a Media Week conference last December. "Our success will also be determined by whether we take the risks to be innovative."
The Tribune soon announced it was launching the Red Eye, a splashy tabloid aimed explicitly at the elusive 18-to-34 demographic. "An awful lot of people in the industry are watching what's going on in Chicago with deep interest," said newspaper analyst Morton, who has been telling his clients for years that long-term circulation decline could be their biggest threat. "All of the studies show that, over the last 30 or so years, the readership in basically the 20- to 25-year group ... has dropped by about half. ... Which means that fewer people are developing a newspaper-reading habit. ... It's sort of a classic geometric progression."
Is it working? A full 75% of the Philly Metro's readership is under 44, McDonald reports. The median age of a New York Times reader, by comparison, is now over 50.
If the RedEye youth-movement experiment works, Tribune Co. has said it will consider launching similar papers in its other markets. First, though, it has to face down competition from Red Streak, launched by the Sun-Times to protect its own lower-brow turf. Since both Chicago tabloids are distributed for free and aimed directly at the young (the RedEye includes expansive entertainment listings), they might actually take a bite out of Chicago's two free weeklies, who share some of the same advertisers. "It looks like an old-fashioned newspaper war," FitzSimons said. "Which is ultimately a great thing for bringing focus and new energy to the business."
In newspaperville, all eyes are on Chicago. Last June, the Chicago Tribune decided its double-digit profit margins and 300,000 circulation lead over the Sun-Times was no longer enough. "In newspapers, our future success will depend on younger readers," Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune Co. president and CEO, told a Media Week conference last December. "Our success will also be determined by whether we take the risks to be innovative."
The Tribune soon announced it was launching the Red Eye, a splashy tabloid aimed explicitly at the elusive 18-to-34 demographic. "An awful lot of people in the industry are watching what's going on in Chicago with deep interest," said newspaper analyst Morton, who has been telling his clients for years that long-term circulation decline could be their biggest threat. "All of the studies show that, over the last 30 or so years, the readership in basically the 20- to 25-year group ... has dropped by about half. ... Which means that fewer people are developing a newspaper-reading habit. ... It's sort of a classic geometric progression."
Is it working? A full 75% of the Philly Metro's readership is under 44, McDonald reports. The median age of a New York Times reader, by comparison, is now over 50.
If the RedEye youth-movement experiment works, Tribune Co. has said it will consider launching similar papers in its other markets. First, though, it has to face down competition from Red Streak, launched by the Sun-Times to protect its own lower-brow turf. Since both Chicago tabloids are distributed for free and aimed directly at the young (the RedEye includes expansive entertainment listings), they might actually take a bite out of Chicago's two free weeklies, who share some of the same advertisers. "It looks like an old-fashioned newspaper war," FitzSimons said. "Which is ultimately a great thing for bringing focus and new energy to the business."
posted by Champion at 11:29 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home