So no matter how you interpret the latest Nielsen's 2Q-2013 Consumer & Media View Report on dropping readership, the writing is now on the wall.
Total readership for 15 news dailies fell by 7% according to various sources, compared to the same period last year.
Nanyang hit a low of -42%, Kosmo -37% and The Star down almost 20% for second quarter 2013. The only English daily that upped its readership is the New Straits Times at 4%.
An unscientific source, my newspaper delivery boy, told me The Star's take-up dropped 30%. But what does he know? The Nielsen Report does however say that the Sunday Star has dropped over 30% in readership.
Let's not get too carried away with the numbers even though that's all media planners would probably look at. And since I've not had the chance to bump into my good friend Richard Hall of Nielsen Malaysia, we can make a few assumptions for advertisers and marketers to ponder about.
Readers who are angry will not return, the DNA of a daily reader goes against this happening. And angry readers do more harm, as they talk bad about the paper they left. So where have these missing readers gone? We read the news every hour and not just every morning as we continue to adapt to multi-screen behaviour every day. Does this mean the readers have gone forever to online sources? We know RM600 million a year of Classified adex has gone to online portals.
While newspaper readership dropped, I would not rush to assume that Online replaced newspapers even though news websites raked an increase of 20% from March to May this year, it is all relative. A home will always have a daily newspaper in it.
This brings me to the English newspapers that are not included in the Nielsen Report: the Sun and the Malay Mail. They merit thought. Without sounding too simplistic, if The Star's readership is 1.7 million per day* (based on 300,000 copies) that means a 20% drop would translate into a loss of 340,000 readers. Now who would't want to court these 340,000 habitual newspaper readers? I know advertisers are gung ho about reaching them.
Which probably explains the recent flurry of news titles, revamp exercises and marketing innovations by competitors who are moving at the speed of light as this opportunity may never come again. The Edge's fz.com is also said to be readying a print version...
Don't forget theSun already runs 300,000 copies a day (some pundits say this has reached saturation point for a free paper). But advertisers love it for its crisp handy content and you couldn't possibly pack a whack to hurt someone on the road or home.
However the Malay Mail circulates at 100,000 a day and its recently launch Weekly Runner at 200,000 copies, seems to be on the cusp of a surge. Their content can endear to the disappointed 340,000 and if the Malay Mail increases its readership by even 200,000, that's a huge deal for advertisers.
Maybe then, some of the 350,000 millionaires who make up The Star's readers may also cross over!
