What next for newspapers as the seven day Mirror is born?
With income declining across the industry, The Mirror becomes the latest newspaper to move to seven day publishing.
Trinity Mirror which publishes the Mirror and Sunday Mirror announced on Wednesday that Richard Wallace and Tina Weaver are being replaced with immediate effect by Lloyd Embley, formerly editor of the People. Mr Embley is also a past assistant editor at The Mirror. The news was unexpected and both editors were escorted from the building.
Editor of industry paper The Press Gazette, Dominic Ponsford, told Channel 4 News the move was “just about numbers”. He said: “Both Tina Weaver and Richard Wallace have been at Trinity Mirror for a long time. I imagine they’re on several hundred thousand pounds a year each. Lloyd Embley who is taking over from both of them will be on a lot less”.
In a statement on its website, Trinity Mirror said the changes were to enable it to create “one of the most technologically advanced and operationally efficient newsrooms in Europe”.
Dominic Ponsford said the decision was also partly due to the success of The Sun on Sunday, launched to replace the disgraced News of the World after it closed amid allegations of phone hacking at the paper.
Apps
But the news is also reflective of long-term changes in the wider journalism industry. Circulation figures make regular gloomy reading for newspaper executives, with even the Sun on Sunday showing lower sales than its forerunner.
March’s sales showed all major titles significantly down on the previous year and the decline would appear long-term.
As more people get their news from free-to-access websites, the 64 million dollar question in the industry is how to make people pay to read news, which evidently people do want to consume but which obviously is costly to produce.
Some newspapers such as the Guardian have produced apps for tablets and smartphones for which users pay monthly fees.
The Times and Sun online have put a paywall between readers and their online content while some, such as the Financial Times and Economist, allow users a fixed number of free articles per month but thereafter charge users for access.
How successful these models are in stemming the haemorrhage in paying readers will only become clear over the next couple of years.
The picture of decline is even worse in the regions, often sources of both stories and staff for the more well known titles.
“In the regional press we’ve seen the loss of lots of senior staff. A generation of senior journalists have taken redundancy and often it is the same story – with roles being combined and new joint editor-in-chief positions created,” says Dominic Ponsford.
Across local titles, print editions of local papers are being merged with other titles, or made into weeklies rather than dailies, with the result being the decimation of payrolls.
‘Challenging industrial climate’
Recently, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) wrote to its members telling them of the recovery plan it is having to put in place as a result of a dip in membership of 18 per cent over the past five years. It is increasing membership fees and reducing some hardship payments by almost half, as it seeks to tackle its “serious financial problems”.
The union puts the blame squarely on wider problems in the sector: “The challenging industrial climate facing our members remains hugely difficult.
“Inevitably this has impacted upon the union’s financial situation. The unprecedented assault on jobs, particularly in the local and regional press, has led to many members leaving the industry altogether or moving to other sectors and paying lower subscription rates.”