The trend of declining circulation and advertising revenue for print editions – combined with increasing focus on online and mobile – is also becoming more noticeable for the smallest and traditionally most stable newspapers. A number of local newspapers have therefore over the past few years to reduce the number of weekly paper releases. More have followed suit recently, as our list shows.
Now Bladet Sunnhordland, local newspaper for Stord and Fitjar, decided. They take the step and cut two of five weekly print editions. 9.5 FTEs are not enough to produce five weekly print editions and going digital, realizes management. Tuesdays and Thursdays are no newspaper from the beginning of May.
– From then on we come out Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was not possible to skip Monday edition, said editor Magne Kydland to Journalisten.no.
To get a “fresh” Weekend newspaper on Tuesday would not be Sunnhordland, he adds. The newspaper also covers Bømlo, Tysnes and Kvinnherad. The wholly owned subsidiaries newspaper Bomlo -New went way over from three to two releases from April 6.
– We have whatever people at work on weekends. There would be some big savings to cut Monday newspaper. Traditionally, we have always had Monday edition but never newspaper on Saturdays, says Kydland about Sunnhordland restructuring.
Touch the round icons on the map to see details of individual papers. RED: Amedia-owned newspapers BLUE: Schibsted owned newspapers GREEN: Polaris Media-owned newspapers BLACK: Local owned / Other owners
We aim to update our list consecutively. Therefore we welcome any tips on several newspapers that have or are going to reduce the number of weekly paper releases.
Get negative reactions
Kydland said he and the staff were positively surprised reactions when the decision was made public last week. There was no flood of protests, but on the contrary very few negative feedback.
– This indicates that we have managed to convey that there will be a lot of new and exciting with Sunnhordland simultaneously. It seems that people understand that we do such a grip.
– The lot of you mood before the decision was taken?
– We had a readership survey last summer. It’s an educational challenging task to ask people how they relate to fewer releases. So we got more negative feedback than we expected. But they were no worse than we chose to continue planning. Our subscribers will be left with at least as much content as before.
Read also: More and more newspapers cut the number of paper days
The transition starts on Monday 9. May. Then comes Sunnhordland with new layout and a fuller newspaper than before. Tuesday 10 May will be the big test of readers’ responses.
– It will be the first Tuesday without newspaper. We have put up a contingency for those events that had to come. But now we are just eager to show off the new product, says Kydland.
New Tray
Friday came the first edition of My Sunnhordland, a new paper magazine to be published four times a year. Kydland notes that it is not quite so many in Norwegian newspaper industry that are investing in new paper products in 2016. My Sunnhordland will focus on people and the good stories, regardless of the season.
– We also hold on to digitize all paper editions since 1902, which also gets a new offer to the paying our readers, says the editor.
– How much saving you on cutting three weekly paper releases?
– This is not primarily a savings vehicle. We own printing and should not cut staff, so the economic savings are marginal. The purpose is primarily to free up resources to create journalism. Today, we are under staffed, with 9.5 of editorial staff, to produce five hard copies in a week.
Kydland points out that the focus henceforth will be to produce better journalism and fuller paper editions.
– We have more time to plan. In addition, we will shift up digitally and also commit to moving images.
Most closes
In 2013 introduced Sunnhordland a digital payment arrangement reminiscent Fædrelandsvennen. That is about 30 percent open and free content online, while the rest are closed. Paying subscribers have access to all published digitally and on paper.
Sunnhordland has lost nearly 1,000 copies in the average paper edition the last five years:
* 2010: 7137
* 2015: 6218
From 2014 to 2015 fell edition with 353 copies.
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The media house also met financial challenges in recent years. Profit before tax fell steeply from 2012, from 2.6 million via 1.6 million to 720,000 million in 2014.
– It does not look like the closing of content online has been a big success?
– The new payment scheme has been a success. The reduction in the number of paper publications has not to do with it. We managed to stop the circulation decline in the short term in 2013, but then continued circulation to fall again. Now we have also adjusted the number of open cases online something to keep as many as possible paying customers, says editor.
The profit for 2015 is not yet published, but, according Kydland become part better than in 2014.
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