The future of newspapers?

Part of An introduction to newspapers in the UK

Consolidation seems one of the ways forward. The Times and The Sun's parent company also owns Sky television, the UK's satellite television service. The Guardian Media Group owns the Smooth FM and Real Radio radio stations, as well as probably the biggest internet presence for a newspaper. On a local scale, the Kent Messenger group also owns the local KMfm radio stations in many areas of Kent, and agressively cross-promotes them; and they're not alone in terms of cross-media ownership.

New sizes and formats were held to arrest the decline of newspaper buying. In June 2004, newspaper sales were declining year-by-year by 4.7% - the only increases worldwide, in fact, coming in developing countries. However, reductions in size for some of the newspapers meant a temporary increase in circulation. And, while newspaper sales have been slowly declining, consumption of news can be claimed to have vastly increased: whether from the internet, or one of the many non-stop news channels available to UK viewers. In June 2010, there was not a single national newspaper in the UK which increased circulation year-on-year.

Newspaper companies own their content. The best way of consumption of this content at present is on small sheets of dead, pulped, reformed, wood. It requires no recharging; losing a newspaper is not a major problem; and delivery and availablity is easy. However, all national papers now have their own websites; some are shifting classified advertising away from the printed paper. Content is a useful commodity - and the way this is presented in the future may well change. The cleverest newspapers will adapt to use their content in different ways.