48 Distribute and Be Damned
health of newspaper organisations, with a wider number of titles being
historically linked to the vigour of the democratic system.
31
Not that the financial decline of newspapers has been minimal. Sridhar
and Sriram note that for every $1 gained in digital advertising between
2005 and 2011, newspapers lost $27 in print advertising.
32
The discrepancy is dramatic: while online ad spends for major US newspapers rose
from just under $3 million to nearly $6 million during that period, print
fell from just below $120 million to approximately $60 million. ROP
(run of press) ads within newspapers took the biggest hit in terms of lost
revenue, accounting for $20 of the $27 lost, followed by preprint inserts
and classifieds. The pattern of advertising habits tends to form a familiar
picture: when advertisers increase their digital ad spend, they pump in
less money for print, and the promise of digital for a greater return on
investment means that they spend considerably less overall for advertising activities. As Fortunati and O’Sullivan observe, print newspapers
have come to be seen as the “weakest layer” in the network of personal
media, which has important consequences for social participation and
sustainable social change.
33
The impact of digital technologies on legacy news media, whether
the web or mobile, has been well-documented over the past decade or
more. The Pew Research Center data previously reported that between
2003 and 2014, circulation numbers in the United States were down 27
per cent, with a 35 per cent decline in reporters.
34
In the UK, a report
commissioned by the Cairncross Review into the sustainability of highquality journalism revealed that circulation and print advertising revenues for news titles had dropped by more than a half in a decade, from
nearly £7 billion to just over £3 billion, and that the number of journalists had declined by a quarter in the same period, from 23,000 in 2007
to 17,000 in 2017.
35
The UK Press Gazette had reported the closure of
nearly 200 local and regional titles in the UK between 2005 and 2016,
36
a figure which the Mediatique report raised to more than 300. It noted
that the dramatic changes had been “fuelled by shifts in consumer behaviour and facilitated by technological innovation” (p. 4), particularly
among younger users, resulting in cost-cutting exercises in newsrooms
across the country. While observing that the media ecosystem is much
more than print newspapers, one of the reasons for the government commission of both the report and the Cairncross review was because traditionally, it was such newspapers that had been most responsible for
social participation and engagement via activities such as reporting local
court cases and council meetings. The impact of big tech companies such
as Google and Facebook on local news media is a profound one, but
there are also further local factors – particularly in the UK – that the
Mediatique report glosses over. Long before his father’s assault on news
aggregators as parasites, James Murdoch criticised the BBC for its role
in using public money from the licence fee to fund commercial television
health of newspaper organisations, with a wider number of titles being
historically linked to the vigour of the democratic system.
31
Not that the financial decline of newspapers has been minimal. Sridhar
and Sriram note that for every $1 gained in digital advertising between
2005 and 2011, newspapers lost $27 in print advertising.
32
The discrepancy is dramatic: while online ad spends for major US newspapers rose
from just under $3 million to nearly $6 million during that period, print
fell from just below $120 million to approximately $60 million. ROP
(run of press) ads within newspapers took the biggest hit in terms of lost
revenue, accounting for $20 of the $27 lost, followed by preprint inserts
and classifieds. The pattern of advertising habits tends to form a familiar
picture: when advertisers increase their digital ad spend, they pump in
less money for print, and the promise of digital for a greater return on
investment means that they spend considerably less overall for advertising activities. As Fortunati and O’Sullivan observe, print newspapers
have come to be seen as the “weakest layer” in the network of personal
media, which has important consequences for social participation and
sustainable social change.
33
The impact of digital technologies on legacy news media, whether
the web or mobile, has been well-documented over the past decade or
more. The Pew Research Center data previously reported that between
2003 and 2014, circulation numbers in the United States were down 27
per cent, with a 35 per cent decline in reporters.
34
In the UK, a report
commissioned by the Cairncross Review into the sustainability of highquality journalism revealed that circulation and print advertising revenues for news titles had dropped by more than a half in a decade, from
nearly £7 billion to just over £3 billion, and that the number of journalists had declined by a quarter in the same period, from 23,000 in 2007
to 17,000 in 2017.
35
The UK Press Gazette had reported the closure of
nearly 200 local and regional titles in the UK between 2005 and 2016,
36
a figure which the Mediatique report raised to more than 300. It noted
that the dramatic changes had been “fuelled by shifts in consumer behaviour and facilitated by technological innovation” (p. 4), particularly
among younger users, resulting in cost-cutting exercises in newsrooms
across the country. While observing that the media ecosystem is much
more than print newspapers, one of the reasons for the government commission of both the report and the Cairncross review was because traditionally, it was such newspapers that had been most responsible for
social participation and engagement via activities such as reporting local
court cases and council meetings. The impact of big tech companies such
as Google and Facebook on local news media is a profound one, but
there are also further local factors – particularly in the UK – that the
Mediatique report glosses over. Long before his father’s assault on news
aggregators as parasites, James Murdoch criticised the BBC for its role
in using public money from the licence fee to fund commercial television