ABCs: Business news lifts nationals’ sales Belinda Cranston
The threat of recession in the US and uncertain economic times in Australia has helped boost sales of national dailies.
News Limited’s The Australian and Fairfax’s The Australian Financial Review posted increased sales for the January to March 2008 quarter.
The big revelation was the weekend edition of The AFR driving its circulation up by a sizable 11.57%. Monday to Friday editions were up 2.26%, while News Ltd’s The Australian was up 3.88%. The Weekend Australian increased its circulationby 2.01%.
Adam Peruch, head of trading at Ikon, put the good news down to doom and gloom.
“I would suggest The Australian Financial Review result is a reflection of what is happening in the world economy. Doom and gloom is good for selling newspapers. When there are difficult times people go back to trusted sources of information. The Financial Review is a trusted source,’’ he said.
Stephen Browning, corporate affairs manager at News Ltd, said business writing had driven sales of The Australian and The Weekend Australian newspapers. “The paper has invested strongly in the business sector and has some great new writers,” he said. The newspaper also now has access to Wall St Journal content following it’s acquisition by News Corp in December.
Mark O’Brien, trading director at Mediacom, said a strong consumer campaign introduced by The Australian’s new commercial director Stephen Tait was likely to have contributed to the increases.
Paul Meischke, trading director at Carat, said sales of The Australian’s daily and weekend editions had increased due to readers being offered the chance to win 20 holidays. “They would expect a lift after that marketing, anything other than that and they would be very upset. For that kind of marketing investment, you would want a 2% to 4% rise in circulation,’’ Meischke said.
He said AFR had “good solid articles about business that other papers can’t offer, particularly on the weekend.” He added: “The growth has been driven by the markets.”
Metropolitan newspapers had disappointing results in comparison. In Sydney sales of weekday editions of The Daily Telegraph fell by 1.61% with a circulation of 366,000 papers, while The Sydney Morning Herald held steady to circulate 212,500 papers.
In Victoria sales of The Age fell by 0.49% during the week while the Herald Sun fell by 1.62%. The West Australian suffered a severe 4.63% drop in sales for its Monday to Friday editions.
Sharper falls were recorded for most metropolitan Saturday papers. Circulation of The Sydney Morning Herald’s Saturday edition fell by 2.70% while Saturday’s The Daily Telegraph slipped 3.76%. The Saturday edition of Victoria’s Herald Sun was alone in increasing, with its circulation up by 0.10%.
Mike Porter, Razor Media buying director, said it was possible the sort of people who traditionally bought Saturday newspapers for employment, real estate and drive sections were now sourcing this information online.
The Age’s circulation and sales strategy manager Sean Harrison said he was not disappointed by The Age’s slight decline of 0.23% for its Saturday paper. “We think these figures are pretty remarkable given Easter was very early this year. That disrupted normal purchasing behaviour.’’
News Ltd’s Browning said sales of The Daily Telegraph on Saturday were still weathering a “hangover effect” following last year’s horse flu epidemic. “The paper’s racing pages really suffered,” he said.
Ikon’s Peruch said overall quarter-on-quarter decreases in circulation across the metropolitans followed higher than normal figures for the October to December 2007 quarter, with events including a change of government boosting newspaper sales for that period.
He was more critical of The West Australian results which reported falls of 4.63% for its weekday edition and 5.37% for its Saturday edition.
“This is a trend that seems to be happening over the last year or so. It could be something to do with the newspaper. Maybe the format is not quite right,’’ he said.
Razor’s Porter said falls at The West Australian appear to support minority shareholder Kerry Stokes’ view that the paper is in need of a revamp. Last month the Seven Network owner failed in his bid to be elected to the WAN board to address failing circulation issues.
News Ltd’s Browning used the overall results to dispel contemporary talk of a death of Australian newspapers being just over the horizon.
“Yes, people are going more and more online, but contrary to popular belief it’s having minimal effect on the print product.”
