Rising cost of newsprint is the final blow for newspapers, bring on the Net!

Posted on 11 December 2011 with 2 comments from readers

Back in the real world where newspapers are run for a profit and not on subsidies from Abu Dhabi and the industry is beginning to feel the pinch from the rising cost of newsprint.

One former reader of the Daily Telegraph commented back to ArabianMoney last week that the latest 20 per cent price hike to around AED7 in the UK was just too much, and that he will in future read their free website instead. That rolls up to about AED225 a month for regular buyers of that paper.

Too expensive

It is quite a lot for UK readers whose own income is likely under pressure from high inflation, stalling wages and higher taxes. But when a free alternative exists why would anybody pay for a newspaper?

Some like the feel of newsprint and assuage their conscience about the carbon footprint by recycling this waste. However, the iPad or Samsung Tablet has made it a breeze to surf the Internet on your couch or at the breakfast table.

Newspapers like the London Times or Financial Times charge for their Internet website service, though this generally far cheaper than buying the dead-tree version.

In the UAE the top papers like the Gulf News and The National have excellent free websites. Online services like Bloomberg.com and Zawya.com provide constantly updated financial news to the highest professional standards.

So far local newspapers have absorbed rising newsprint costs and not raised the cost of their product. But with The National sacking dozens of journalists in recent cost cutting, the Abu Dhabi austerity drive may reach the cover price yet.

More content?

Is this really progress? Perhaps it would be better to go the whole hog and axe the physical paper entirely. Money saved could be concentrated in promoting first-rate Internet journalism and not spent subsidizing the felling of forests and global warming.

Content is after all what people want in a newspaper, and it is noticeable that the quality of local news analysis has fallen recently along with staff numbers.

Perhaps advertisers too would take the Internet more seriously if they did not have media agencies still fixated with a physical product that fewer and fewer people actually read, and whatever the audits tell us we all know that is the true position.

They must surely also notice newspapers and magazines lying around in public places in the UAE in the vain hope that somebody might care to read them. It’s somewhat pitiful the way you can find a free copy of the FT anytime in Dubai given a little effort. But then if you are serious about financial news you turn to the Internet and do not want to read yesterday’s news.