Blog tasks: The decline in print media (factsheet 165)

Part 1: Ofcom report into news consumption 2019

1) UK adults:

• Fewer UK adults use BBC TV channels for news compared to last year, while more are using social media
• They are consuming news more actively via social media. 

2) TV remains the most-used platform among UK adults, however there had been a 49% increase of UK adults using social media for their news, which is a change.

3) Newspapers are they least likely way of people consuming news, as the years go the % is decreasing. E.g. 2018- 40% and 2019- 38%.

4) Demographics that are more likely to read newspapers:

• Males- 40%
• Aged 65+- 58%
• ABC1- 41%
• White- 39%
  

Demographics that are least likely to read newspapers:

• Females-35%
• Aged 16-24-20%
• C2DE- 34%
• Minority ethnic- 34%

5) Newspaper brands which were most popular sources:

• Daily Mail
• The Guardian/Observer
• The Sun
• Metro

6) The circulation of national newspapers decreased between 2010 and 2018 from nearly 22

million in 2010 to 10.4 million in 2018. National Sunday Titles are significantly lower.

7) Most-used newspaper titles:

• Daily Mail
• The Sun 
• Metro

8) Most-used newspapers with print and online combined:

• Daily Mail/Mail On Sunday
• The Guardian/Observer
• The Sun/Sun On Sunday

9) The'i' is one of the least popular used newspaper, whereas The Daily Mail is the most popular newspaper used. This suggests that The Daily Mail is much more established and seen as more 'trustworthy' due to the figures, whereas The 'i' is still new as it was set up in 2010.

10) Daily Mail audience;

• More females-40%
• More 65+-39%
• Roughly equal amounts of ABC1 & C2DE.
• A slight increase in white people compared to BAMEs- 37%
• They have double figure statistics

The i audience:

• Single figure statistics.

11) 3 interesting statistics:

1. Men are more likely to use Twitter, WhatsApp, LinkdIn and Reddit- 39%, 33%,12% and 10%.
2. Women are more likely to use Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat- 77%, 30%, 19%.

• I find these 2 points interesting as it shows how men still want to be traditional in that way of using older social media websites, whereas women are going with a more trendy approach.

      3. In 2019 Twitter is the most used social media account for most news companies. 

• This is interesting as Twitter isn't really reachable for all groups, like Snapchat and Instagram.

12) Statements that audiences agree with for The Daily Mail:

• 71%- high quality.
• 70%- helps them understand what is going on in the world today.
• 68%- personally important to them.

Part 2: Factsheet - The death of print media

1) In the last 30 years print media has suffered a decrease in their sales, by 50%.  People are using the new and digital media to catch-up on news.

2) The Independent is less popular now, they also suffered a decline in print sales and closed down, however moved online to compete with other online news.

3) The Independent was famous for their unorthodox and campaigning front pages, they didn't take sides and were seen as 'neutral' and 'fair'.

4)  Evgeny Lebedev, said that the newspaper industry will undergo many changes, due to the demands of the readers wanting their news available online.

5) Online newspapers make money through advertising and click-bait stories.

6) Regarding the switch to digital Simon Kelner warned that it is difficult to replicate a newspaper online. 

7) The concern with fake news is that you are unable to pick them out because they all 'seem real' and sound genuine. 
'Post-truth'- beyond the point where facts and true statements are valued.

8) Due to the increase in new and digital media, of course more and more people will want to consume their news online for free, so I'm not concerned or surprised that the Independent is in decline.However, many people are susceptible to fake news due to them living in their echo-chambers. In my opinion news should be free because its all about informing the people and I think everyone is entitled to it.