NDM: The decline in newspapers - MM case studies

The New Day
The New Day was a brand new newspaper launched by institution Trinity Mirror in 2016 - but it folded after just two months.  

Read the feature: 'A New Day for British journalism' on page 6 of Media Magazine 57 (our Media Magazine archive is here) and complete the following tasks on your blog:

1) What was the New Day trying to achieve?
- The New Day was launched to tap into a new market, not specifically to pinch readers from other newspapers. This is due to the fact that people are not buying newspapers as they have fallen out of love with it.

2) List the key statistics on the first page: how many people buy newspapers in the UK? How has this declined in the last year?
- 'Today' lasted only for the best part of 10 years 
- 'the European' 1990-1998 
- Over a million people have stopped buying a newspaper in the past two years which is a very large amount in a small period of time.

3) What audience were the New Day trying to attract?
- They were trying to attract people aged 35-55 both men and women and aimed to be a more modern approach to news but instead they seem to attract a younger audience around their twenties or parents with young children, specifically young women.

4) Why do you think the New Day failed so spectacularly? There are several possible reasons listed in the article but do develop your own opinion here as well.
- I think they failed because they increased the price from 25p to 50p within 2 weeks which made them lose their audience to 40,000 when their goal was to reach 200,000. The research may have been flawed in the sense that people may not have answered questions honestly. Also, it is argued that there was no place for a new kind of newspaper when the print media is a dying medium.


The Guardian
The Guardian is another British newspaper struggling with a steep decline in print sales. However, the Guardian's survival strategy has been built around a global online approach to digital content. 

Read the feature: 'Can The Guardian survive in a changing media landscape?' on page 9 of Media Magazine 57 and complete the following tasks on your blog:

1) List the key statistics on page 10: How many unique digital browsers used the Guardian website in June 2016? What are The Guardian's latest print sales figures? How does this compare to the Telegraph? In terms of finances, how much did the Guardian lose in 2015? 

Guradian website is the 3rd most read in the world (120 million + monthly unique bowsers)

Feb 2016: 9 million daily average browsers - way behind mailonline with 14 million ahead of the telegraph who has 4 million

print circulation of gurdian is only 161,000

print dailytelegraph is 472,000

independent (before closing had) 54,000

throughout 2015; guardian lost '£70 million' and digital ad sales falling to offset the effect of decreased revenue of print, leading to a 20% cut in their shelving plans

print news sales has steadily declined since explosive growth of internet in 1990s

2) What has been The Guardian's strategy for reversing this decline?
- Over the past two years they have developed the ability to deliver 24hour live rolling news coverage of world news such as the Paris attacks. This is changing the way people access The Guardian on their mobile phones as during the attacks the victims were using the news as they hid to keep updated and as a guide to safety.

3) What global event did The Guardian's digital coverage win awards for?
- The Guardian won an award for a digital coverage on the reporting on the Paris attacks. They were praised and acknowledged by readers from the Society of Editors.

4) In your opinion, will the global website strategy be enough to save The Guardian?
- I think for now the global website strategy will be enough to maintain The Guardian however with the constant change that the internet provides and the change in how the audiences view things will make it even more difficult than it is already for the website to survive.