Today's extract from the second, updated edition of the book about local journalism What do we mean by local?* is by Tom Felle, a former Irish Independent reporter who now lectures in journalism at Limerick university.
Ireland's regional weekly newspapers, once owned in the main by a collection of wealthy merchant families, changed dramatically in the years either side of the new millennium in 2000.
The Celtic Tiger economic boom led to the sale of a number of titles for multi-million euro sums, and the consolidation of up to three quarters of the market by major players including Independent News & Media (INM), Thomas Crosbie Holdings (TCH), Celtic Media and Johnston Press.
For a short while, it appeared as though newspapers had a licence to print money as double digit ad growth fuelled almost exclusively by Ireland's out-of-control property market continued unabated. It came to a shuddering halt in 2007 when Ireland's economy collapsed, plunging the country into the deepest recession in its history.
External factors, such as the worldwide slowdown, contributed to the collapse, but Ireland's heavy reliance on its property market exacerbated the difficulties considerably.
For newspapers, the house of cards on which their future circulation projections and ad growth assumptions had been built crumpled.
In December 2007, the total weekly circulation of 46 local titles totalled 475,000 according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Since then, on average, sales have fallen by about 30%. The table below lists the five titles with the largest declines between 2007 and 2012.
Newspapers that surround the capital, Dublin, have fared particularly badly, and the recession has had a significant impact. A major increase in unemployment has left many families living in commuter areas struggling to pay bills. Tens of thousands are in negative equity.
A local newspaper, therefore, is perhaps considered an avoidable expense. Demographics are also a likely contributory factor. Families in commuter belts tend to be new arrivals with little or no attachment to the local communities – and, arguably, even less attachment to the local paper.
But newspapers elsewhere have also lost circulation. Throughout the country local titles have lost on average 5% of their sales per year between 2007 and 2012. Even before the economy collapsed, there were warning signs that local papers were facing difficulties.
Traditionally, newspapers worked on a fairly simple economic model. They made money from selling ads (roughly 65%) and from circulation sales (35%).
Since the Tiger's collapse, ad revenues have taken a shellacking. The most reliable reports suggest that the overall Irish ad market has shrunk by about 40% from 2007 to 2013.
Newsroom staffing grew during the boom years, as did back office and sales staff. Post boom, all regional newspapers are in constant cutback mode in an effort to reduce their cost base.
Publishers slow to change editorial practices
Changes to editorial and business practices were necessary, but some were slow to implement them. Six years in, the pace of change has finally started to speed up, though some have moved more quickly than others.
INM-owned newspapers such as the Kerryman, Corkman and Sligo Champion outsourced their production relatively early on, and have centralised back office and support staff.
TCH, which owned titles in Waterford, Wexford, Carlow and Mayo among others, centralised production, introduced a pay freeze and, later, a pay cut. It subsequently went into "a pre-packaged receivership" in February 2013, and was taken over by a new company called Landmark Media Investments, owned by members of the Crosbie family.
Celtic Media, which was the subject of a management buyout in June 2012, launched an outsourced production service and have contracts to handle pre-press and printing for a number of local weeklies.
Johnston Press also centralised its regional printing in Northern Ireland and introduced a number of new initiatives, such as monetising its digital photographic archive.
Some local independently-owned newspapers have also outsourced, including the Munster Express, while others including the Nenagh Guardian have gone tabloid in an effort to reduce costs. More have diversified or tried to add value, such as the Connacht Tribune, introducing a quarterly glossy magazine and buying a local radio station.
With production costs significantly reduced, local weeklies are positioning themselves for the fight to survive. But some titles have already closed and more closures are inevitable.
Almost all publishers are dabbling online, without making any commercial success of it. The proliferation of online news outlets – as well as the diversity of sources for news – has completely changed the economic model for newspapers.
Unfortunately, many newspapers won't survive the transition from print to digital. Ireland's local newspapers are, in the main, hopelessly unprepared. And even if they were prepared, a perfect storm of difficulties conspires against them.
Tech giants dominate digital advertising market
Purchasers tend to be older and less likely to access news online. Conversely, younger people who are most likely to access news online are the least likely to pay for it.
Competition for digital advertising in the Irish market is fierce, with the tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter soaking up large portions of the digital spend.
So it is difficult to see how any economic model can sustain local newspapers in the digital era. By its nature, the editorial value of local news is its "localness". It cannot be measured in terms of unit costs, scaled up or scaled down.
Local news is not a scalable model, but rather it is a public good. It is vital, therefore, that solutions are found to save local newspapers. The consequences for local communities if their local newspapers disappear are profound: less local news will be reported, few courts will be covered, and local government will not be scrutinised.
Fundamentally, the role of the local reporter and the local newspaper as the watchdog for democracy will disappear.
A not-for-profit model might well be seem like anathema to corporate news media organisations but might, in fact, be suited to local newspapers. Such a model could be sustained by philanthropy, or though a mix of subscriptions and other revenue sources.
In that vein, comments by the former Irish Times' editor, Conor Brady, at the launch of the 2012 report of the Irish press ombudsman in June 2013 were interesting.
He called for the introduction of a fund whereby online giants such as Google and Facebook – who make their profits, in part, off the back of content created by journalists – would pay to support newspapers.
A similar move in France has lead to Google agreeing to pay €60m into a fund to support newspapers.
Tomorrow: Neil Fowler on what could, or should, be done
*What do we mean by local? The rise, fall – and possible rise again – of local journalism is edited by John Mair, Richard Lance Keeble and Neil Fowler. To be published 1 September by Abramis at £19.95. Special offer to Guardian readers, £15, from richard@arimapublishing.co.uk
Regional & local newspapers
Ireland
Media business
Media downturn
Independent News & Media
Johnston Press
Newspapers
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Irish Times
Northern Ireland
Roy Greenslade
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