It’s been another ‘bad news’ month for UK newspapers. Just a few weeks after Vice founder Shane Smith predicted a media industry “bloodbath”, Britain’s most successful newspaper group DMGT reported a 16% drop in advertising revenue at the Daily Mail in the six months to the end of March. Even the 20% growth at its Mail Online was scant consolation because annual revenue will not reach the £100m targeted for more than two years. Consequently, the world’s largest English language newspaper site remains far from profitable. Daily sales of the UK’s national newspapers have more than halved to 6.5m in the past 15 years and are still falling. But it is the continuing drain of advertising that panics investors.
Consultant Enders Analysis says: “Print advertising is going through a structural shift, a hugely significant shift, because of decisions made by major advertisers such as retailers and supermarkets. And there doesn’t seem to be an awful lot sales teams can do about it.” The Financial Times noted: “Fleet Street is following Britain’s regional papers and US metropolitan ones in being hollowed out.”
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