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The industry today
Publishing in the knowledge economy
companies to develop cross-platform
strategies and to escape from rigid crossmedia
ownership constraints.
However, according to a Henley Centre study
for the Publishers’ Association, on how book
publishing is faring in relation to other media,
while time spent on media in total is not rising,
the percentage of total time spent reading is
being apportioned differently, with the share of
books rising (up from 44% in 1988 to 52% in
2000) and the share of newspapers (down from
44% to 32%) falling. Magazines’ share rose
from 1988 to 1998 (13% to 22%) but has since
fallen to 16%.
Interestingly, in contrast with Mediaphile, the
Henley Centre also found that the proportion of
time spent reading has risen relative to other
leisure activities, while time spent listening or
viewing has fallen, albeit slightly. The sharpest
rise, unsurprisingly, is in the proportion of time
spent ‘interacting’.
One of the questions asked in our survey of
industry companies (see Appendices for
methodology and text of the questionnaire)
related to the impact of various kinds of social
changes on the industry. The results suggest
that the increased demands on consumers’
time constitutes the most negatively perceived
aspect of anticipated social changes (see
Figure 3.10). It is also important to note that this
information refers only to consumer media
spending and use, not to the business to
business area.
3.5 Demographic changes
The age profile of the population has major
implications for the publishing industry. The
current trend towards the ageing of the
population is mainly seen as positive or neutral,
according to our questionnaire.
This is backed up by research which shows
that, for books and newspapers at any rate, the
usage is skewed towards older age groups.
This would imply a positive outlook for those
sectors because of the ageing of the population.
However, unless this pattern is reproduced as
generations mature, it is obvious that publishing
companies will eventually be in difficulty.
Because newspapers have actually
experienced declining circulations – not just in
the UK, but across the advanced countries –
Table 3.1 Newspaper readership
profiles by age
Age
group National Regional
15-24 13.5 13.9
25-34 17.4 18.1
35-44 17.8 18.4
45-54 17.5 16.6
55-64 13.5 13.1
65+ 20.2 19.8
Source BMRB Target Group Index (TGI) 2001
they have tended to be more concerned about
this issue than other segments. The Newspaper
Society carried out some research with BMRB
into media use by lifestage, which shows very
clearly how the different stages of life, e.g. ‘live
with parents’, ‘live with partner’, ‘children left
home’, affect the kind of media that is used and
how intensively. This lifestage analysis is
increasingly more useful than simple age
breakdowns, now that family formation occurs
at very varying ages, and second families are
becoming more common.
A particular problem faces national
newspapers in that they have a limited number
of brands at their disposal and these brands
tend to become identified with particular age
cohorts, with well-known examples being the
Daily Express and the Daily Telegraph.
Theoretically interactive media present great
opportunities for publishing companies to break
free of the format and brand constraints that can
prevent them appealing to new generations of
customers. In practice, it has been difficult so far
to deploy the power of the offline brand to
support the online one at the same time as
having enough flexibility in the online brand to
allow it to play the desired role of a new,
differentiating identity. Closely related to this is
the issue of monetising the online manifestation
of the brand, apart from by driving sales or >
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