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Andrew Hebden is Assistant Editor (Business) of The Journal »
Katie Pringle has started her own business, Rock, Paper, Scissors »
Andrew Mernin is the Digital Journalist for nebusiness »
Matthew Rippon is an IP lawyer for BHP Law »
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Ross Smith, Head of Policy and Research at the North-East Chamber of Commerce »
Julian Christopher from Footprint Public Relations, on media and marketing »
Norma Foster from the North East Regional Portal writes about e-business »
Ian Brown, Northumberland farmer and businessman writes about the agricultural industry »
Accessibilty Champion Steve Wilkinson on the importance of inclusion »
Andrea Wilkinson of Shared Interest is visiting Swaziland to deliver business training »
Jonathan Wheatley from Stokesley-based MC Ware writes about IT matters »
Mark Lisgo is a Northeasterner who works for law firm Eversheds in Abu Dhabi, UAE »
Paul Williamson from Deloitte »For me, one of life’s simplest and greatest pleasures is wandering down to the newsagent on a Sunday morning, scooping up a rainforest’s worth of newspapers and then working my way through them over the next couple of hours with the help of a large cup of coffee and a couple of croissants – or at least it was, until I had kids…
Now that weekend lie-ins last until about 7am, this sort of self-indulgence is just a distant memory – but in another decade or so, when I hope to get my Sunday mornings back, there’s a growing likelihood that my trips to the newsagent might well be obsolete.
Newspaper circulation figures have been steadily falling over the last few years, and the latest ABC statistics, which measure readerships month-by-month and year-on-year, show that there’s no sign of this trend abating.
Of the 22 national daily and Sunday newspapers listed, only the Financial Times and (thanks to a recent relaunch) the Independent on Sunday have recorded any level of year-on-year growth at all, with negative changes of more than ten per cent afflicting many of their rival publications.
Even the super soaraway Sun, Britain’s most popular newspaper and the proud possessor of a circulation of over 4,000,000 just a short time ago, is now struggling to keep it above the three million mark.
With more and more people getting their news from an ever-growing variety of online and electronic sources, and the emergence of new technologies like portable, foldable screens to which your chosen news resource can be beamed, are we witnessing the terminal decline of the physical newspaper?
Might even the name of Newcastle’s most audibly-celebrated inhabitant – Mr Ronnie Gill - one day no longer echo round the city centre streets, as all his readers turn to their screens for their daily digital edition?
Call me old fashioned, but there’s still something comforting about reading a publication that you’re physically holding.
Even the smell of the newsprint and the mess it leaves on your fingers have a sentimental value - and even though we’re in an electronic age and I get an awful lot of my own news from online sources, I hope there’ll always be a place in the media mix for the good old daily rag.
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