It is hardly news that print advertising is in long-term decline, but what used to be called Fleet Street — the UK’s national newspapers — is suffering from the trend more severely than before. Fleet Street is following Britain’s regional papers and US metropolitan ones in being hollowed out.
Shares in Daily Mail and General Trust, publisher of the Daily Mail, fell by 10 per centon Thursday as it disclosed the toll that the sudden downturn in print advertising is having on its business. It suffered a 16 per cent decline in print advertising revenues in the first half of its financial year.
Along with planned cost savings and job cuts at The Guardian, the announcement this week of editorial job cuts at The Telegraph, and the closure of The Independent’s print edition in March, the Mail’s weakness shows the severity of Fleet Street’s challenge. Even the Financial Times, which has offset print challenges with growing digital subscriptions, has warned of “daunting trading conditions”.
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