Tag: The Press

Some welcome good news on newspaper front…not for all

It is too early to put money on it, but there are signs New Zealand metropolitan newspaper readership may be stabilising.

The latest Nielsen survey shows most metropolitan newspapers have held their own year-on-year and some have actually improved their numbers. The outlier is the largest of our newspapers, The New Zealand Herald, which has dropped 10,000 readers to now stand at 503,000.

The most impressive performer is The Post. The capital’s daily has increased readership by almost as much as the Herald dropped – up over nine per cent from 93,000 to 112,000. Its Stuff stablemate, the Waikato Times has been even more impressive in percentage terms. Its readership grew by more than 12 per cent to stand at 55,000. The Press in Christchurch (90,000) and the Otago Daily Times (87,000) were relatively stable year-on-year, although both experienced small declines from the previous quarter.

The weekly coverage by all metro dailies is up 36,000 to 1.55 million.

In the Sunday market, the Herald on Sunday dropped 3000 year-on-year to stand at 308,000 readers. However, Stuff will be pleased with the Sunday Star Times which upped its numbers from 178,000 to 191,000 (a 7.3 per cent rise). Overall, therefore, the Sunday readership is also improving.

Remember, these are readers of the respective newspapers and does not include the digital audience that I will come to shortly. The Nielsen figures measure the number of people who read [Newspaper] in the issue period. They show there is yet life in print editions, although we must not get carried away by the smell of newsprint and printing ink. Continue reading “Some welcome good news on newspaper front…not for all” →

Stuff’s new paywalls send the right message to users

Stuff’s announcement that its three metropolitan mastheads will go behind a paywall should be welcomed with a loud sigh of relief.

Finally, the publisher has stopped pussy-footing around reader contributions. Although its voluntary Stuff Supporter Scheme (run through PressPatron) is still in place, it has bitten the bullet on straight-out digital subscriptions. It has made the right move.

From last Saturday, The Post (goodbye Dominion) and its metro sisters The Press and the Waikato Times became sequestered on individual, paywalled websites. For the first 16 weeks, subscribers pay $1.99 a week for one of the three sites or $2.99 for all three. After that discount period, the charge will be $5 a week (the same as the New Zealand Herald’s Premium Content) or $7.50 a week for all three.

I have opted for the bigger bundle on the basis that, if I believe we should pay to consume news that is costly to produce, I should put my money where my mouth is. I similarly paid up when the Herald introduced its premium content. It’s not a bad deal. The Australian’s digital subscription, for example, is $NZ8.50 a week.

It may sound strange that I gave a sigh of relief at having to part with some money but Stuff’s hold-out position on digital subscriptions had meant the public has been receiving mixed messages about paywalls. After Herald Premium was launched, NZME could be seen as Scrooge and free-to-all Stuff as Bruce Wayne (and his alter ego Batman). That misplaced confusion has now gone. Continue reading “Stuff’s new paywalls send the right message to users” →