Rebekah Wade, editor of London’s Sun, in her 2008 Cudllip Lecture:
” A quick analysis of our industry in 2008.
The ABCs of our national daily newspapers show that last year 382,000 people stopped buying a daily paper.
And if you look at this chart – is it a coincidence that the biggest losses are where we’ve seen the biggest cuts in journalism?
Of course, the answers to our industry problems are more complex than that.
Last year, we gave away over 163 million copies in bulks to maintain these levels.
We listed 270 million foreign sales.
We gave away 120 million free CDs and DVDs – of questionable quality and at enormous cost – just to rent readers.
We paid our retailers and wholesalers over 800 million pounds in margins that have outstripped RPI.
And while 1,400 corner shops closed, it’s been years since we developed alternative new routes to market.
We saw another increase in the number of free newspapers. In 2008 we distributed 639 million copies.
The huge growth in digital still doesn’t pay for high quality journalism.
We give away our expensive editorial content free online without an economic model that compensates for the loss in traditional revenues.
The rising cost of news and magazine print is in double figures and there is the small matter of the recession.
But despite all these challenges, there are huge positives. Especially if you compare our industry to television.
Despite the credit crunch, 3.5 billion daily newspapers were sold last year with an estimated 1.8 billion pounds in advertising revenue.
Of course like any business in a recession, we have to cut costs and drive revenue to survive.
But cost-cutting in this business only works if the savings are reinvested in journalism.
Yes, man!
Picture by PA.