MM
total circulation for The Guardian than for many of its rivals. Identifying the precise point of ‘exchange’
Distribution How is The Guardian’s news ‘distributed’? The
printed version, once it has been printed at one of the two Guardian Print Centres (London and Manchester) is delivered to UK wholesalers by TNT Newsfast/Network Logistics. The Guardian is also printed internationally, in some countries using OCE’s DNN service. For example: under the current deal The Guardian is able to print 600 copies per day in Sydney and have the copies on sale down under before their readers in Europe have even woken up. Digital newspaper printing‚ the missing link:
http://www.inpublishing.co.uk/kb/articles/
digital_newspaper_printing_the_missing_
link.aspx
The website is ‘distributed’ via the internet, of
course, but the content of The Guardian’s website is not only found by visiting
www.guardian.co.uk through a web browser. RSS feeds, email headlines and mobile phone services all allow Guardian readers to stay up to date. And recently a major new feature has been added, as The Guardian has released its ‘Open Platform’, a set of software developer tools which was launched with a content API (Application Programming Interface). What this means is that web developers can integrate Guardian content seamlessly into their clients’ websites, whilst The Guardian controls the adverts which are associated with the free content it provides. As Guardian director of digital content Emily Bell puts it, this will allow Guardian content to be ‘woven into the fabric of the internet’.
Marketing and exchange We have already seen how software is being
used to market The Guardian’s content through APIs, and the ways the printed newspaper acts as an advert for online services. But The Guardian also uses other traditional media to advertise its newspaper and website, including some innovative TV adverts. In common with other national newspapers, it also offers discounted subscription schemes and often runs promotions to give the newspaper away to university students as a way of encouraging a lifelong Guardian habit. Free copies are a great incentive, and cutting
across issues of distribution, exchange and audience consumption, is the issue of ‘bulks’. These are large orders of heavily discounted copies of the printed paper, typically sold to airlines and hotels to be given away to their customers. This year has seen The Guardian break with another tradition in this respect, as it announced it would become the first national quality daily to scrap distribution of all its bulks. MediaWeek reported that Guardian News and Media claimed the move would ‘increase transparency across the newspaper industry’ – the implication being that its rivals inflate their circulation figures through the use of bulk orders. We might wonder whether the move to scrap bulks was linked with the industrial action and redundancies at The Guardian Print Centre; though as the MediaWeek article pointed out, bulks represent a much smaller percentage of
between publisher and reader is interesting in the case of newspapers as they run parallel online and printed content. An online reader might have seen a headline on the website encouraging them to buy the print edition, or have been encouraged to go online by an advert seen in the print version. And with subscription models to consider, how might exchange be usefully understood? For example, an online reader might be sent email content or be paying for access to subscription- only content, even when they neglect to check their emails or use the site. Of course, buying a printed newspaper doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll read it either, so any discussion of ‘exchange’ must be complicated as we distinguish between the physical product and its content. The transaction between publisher and consumer, of this product and its content is further complicated when we look again at the issue of APIs and their role in distributing content through other media. Clearly, we cannot explore this fully in this article!
Audience consumption At the time of writing, based on June’s
circulation figures, The Guardian website is the second most popular UK newspaper website after Mail Online. An online readership battle seems to be hotting up, with the top three (Telegraph, Guardian, Mail) boasting 27, 28 and 29 million unique users respectively. If we average this out over a month that’s nearly a million users per day for each of the top three newspaper sites. The Guardian newspaper sells around 330,000 copies per day, so as a very rough guide it has three online users for every newspaper purchase. This picture is complicated further, however,
as the number of copies sold doesn’t necessarily equal the number of readers: many people share their copy of a printed newspaper so the readership and/or circulation figures can only ever be a rough guide. They are vital to the industry of course, because a newspaper which reaches a larger audience can charge more for its advertising space, and newspapers make more money from advertising than anything else. The cover price in most cases will not cover the cost of production.
Patterns and trends If you’ve used free online survey websites
such as
www.surveymonkey.com, you’ll know how easy it is to gather questionnaire results for a coursework project without the hassle of distributing wads of photocopies. Try conducting a survey of the newspaper reading habits in your Media Studies class this term so you’ll be able to compare your own experience of newspapers with those of other AS students. Are there any trends or patterns? Any surprises? How do your survey results reflect the national picture of newspaper readership? Remember that the mark scheme explicitly rewards discussion of your own experience. This section is the ideal place to put in some well-researched data to back up your case study of The Guardian.
Conclusions In researching this case study I’ve found that
a lot has happened in the newspaper industry during the past year, so by the time your exam comes around (or heaven forbid, a resit!) there may well have been other changes to cover in your research. For example, by the time you read this article, The Guardian may well be the most popular UK news website once more, so it’s worth checking out the statistics available online. However, rest assured that examiners are aware it takes time to develop case study materials, so as long as you use clear examples and identify sources where possible, you’ll be credited with having learned your material, even if it’s not bang up-to-date. We’ve seen that The Guardian is at the cutting
edge of technology in the newspaper industry, which helps to explain why it is one of the world’s most popular news websites. However, we’ve only scratched the surface here in terms of how it is using sophisticated software to market its content globally, especially in the USA. We’ve also seen that the not-for-profit Guardian is not immune to the current unprecedented pressures on the newspaper industry and that, like its competitors, it is facing very tough times.
Neil Paddison is a Media teacher, freelance writer and cartoonist.
References
1. BBC News: ‘Media revolution: stop press?’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7872154. stm
2. WPP profits down by nearly 50%: http://
www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/wpp- profits-down-nearly-50-per-cent
3. The essay can be found here: http://www.
guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2002/nov/29/1
4. A quick history of The Guardian: http://www.
guardian.co.uk/gnm-archive/2002/jun/06/1
5. Guardian Media Group (GMG): http://www.
gmgplc.co.uk/GMG/tabid/126/Default.aspx
6. GMG’s Annual Report:
www.gmgplc.co.uk/ Portals/7/GMG_Annual%20Report_2009.pdf
7. Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) announces full-year results for 2008/09:
www.gmgplc.
co.uk/media/pressreleases/tabid/213/default. aspx?pressreleaseid=127&cid=viewdetails
8. Guardian Unlimited in the black for first time:
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectio ncode=1&storycode=33685
9. Flat Earth News, by Nick Davies, Chapter 2.
english and media centre | December 2009 | MediaMagazine 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67