Analysis: the latest Reuters Digital News Report Ireland confirms that the number of people reading print papers continues to fall
A flurry of headlines in the past few months reflect that the future of printed newspapers is still a hot topic in Ireland. Peter Vandermeersch, the CEO of publisher Mediahuis Ireland, got the ball rolling back in October 2022 when he welcomed the government's plans to reduce VAT on print and digital newspapers to zero per cent saying it would enable his business to move to a digital future. Mediahuis owns a number of major titles including the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent, the Belfast Telegraph and the Sunday World.
Speaking to the Business Post, Vandermeersch predicted that 'somewhere in the future, there won’t be print editions during the week, they will only be on Saturdays and Sundays’. Nonetheless he went on to qualify that ‘the future’ was ‘not the foreseeable future’ during this ‘transition phase’ while the estimated €3 to €4 million windfall would be used to develop new platforms with ‘quality content’.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, Mediahuis Ireland CEO Peter Vandermeersch on the publisher's announcement of major job cuts
Mediahuis Ireland shocked the industry in March when an 'extensive' round of redundancies was announced by editor-in-chief Cormac Bourke, who underlined that the company was focusing on 'the way we work'. Vandermeersch linked these cuts to ‘the newsroom of the future’. A week later, he predicted daily printed newspapers would disappear within the next decade: ‘whether it is 2029 or 2032’ wasn’t immediately clear he said.
Its rival publication the Irish Times was quick to capitalise on this perceived lack of loyalty to the print reader. Managing director Deirdre Veldon told staff that the newspaper group was not considering reducing or exiting its printed newspaper business, saying 'although print circulation is declining, we still have a loyal and valued newspaper reader base’. Ironically, part of what is enabling the newspaper to ‘extend its print runway’ is enabling those newspapers exiting print publishing (including Mediahuis) to print in the Irish Times printing plant.
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From RTÉ Radio1's The Business, interview with Mediahuis publisher Peter Vandermeersch
So how has the print readership fared in the Reuters Digital News Report Ireland statistics over the years? The data from the question ‘Which, if any, of the following have you used in the last week as a source of news’ are revealing. In 2015, 49% said they read print newspapers, which descended to 45% the following year. In 2017, the percentage saying that they had read news in printed newspapers fell five percent to 40% and in 2018 it fell a further five percent to 35%.
From 2017, those surveyed who confirmed they had read news in the past week were asked additionally: ‘Which would you say is your MAIN source of news?’ The percentage citing newspapers as their main source has hovered around in the single figures: 6% (2017); 5% (2019); 4% (2021) and 5% (2023). In contrast, news from social media has grown from 16% (2017) to 20% (2023) and ‘Online – excluding social media and blogs’ has gone up from 28% (2017) to 32% (2023). The figures from Ireland in 2023 regarding newspaper readership (5%) are similar to those in the UK, the US and in Europe.
In order to move more convincingly into Vandermeersch’s transitional phase to full digital, Ireland’s media companies are going to have to up their game – 2029 is only six years away. The Reuters’ data show that the percentage of those who have subscribed to any form of online news site has only shifted slowly from 7% (2015) to 12% (2019) to 15% (2023).
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Bob Hughes from Local Ireland/Local IrelandRegional Newspapers and Printers Association of Ireland on how local newspapers are 'still surviving' in face of digital transition
At the top of the charts for subscriptions are the Irish Times (41%); the Irish Independent (32%); followed by both the Guardian and the New York Times (14%). Two more foreign titles the Times/Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph come in at 10%. The permeability of the Irish news market means a lot of the money, including any profits, goes abroad to the headquarters of these multinationals.
Media companies are doing their best to pull in subscribers via persuasive advertising and cheap entry incentives, whether for newspaper delivery and/or digital bundle incentives. At the highbrow end, the Irish Times implores readers to, ‘be a member of an engaged and informed community of Irish Times readers with unlimited access to our great features’. At the Independent.ie, ‘Premium+ now includes access to 16 epaper Titles’. Over at The Currency, they’re stressing the personal touch of being led by ‘two of Ireland’s most respected journalists’ who are ‘passionate about the power and importance of quality journalism’.
According to this year's Reuters data, 37% cited ‘Better quality [journalism] than I can get from free sources’ as one of the top reasons for taking out a subscription, followed by ‘the website/app was easy to use (33%) and ‘I was offered a good deal/trial’ (32%). The largest number of subscriptions people surveyed have is one. There is a lot of competition for people’s money now – especially given the proliferation of film and television streaming companies. If this cost of living crisis continues, one wonders how many readers will be left with ink on their fingers.
This article was originally published in the Reuters Digital News Report Ireland 2023
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
