Saturday, July 2, 2011

Guardian closes international print editions to focus on digital

nma reporting:
The publisher will stop printing editions at five sites: Cyprus, Frankfurt, Madrid, Malta and New York. The focus will now be on serving overseas audiences via the Guardian website and mobile platforms. The distribution of Guardian Weekly will also be increased.
Adam Freeman, commercial executive director, said in a statement: “Our international print editions have been a valued part of what we do for a number of years, but as a result of the structural changes affecting all printed newspapers, we have been steadily reducing the number of copies we publish outside the UK since 2010 due to reasons of demand and cost.”
The decision is one of the first manifestations of Guardian News & Media’s digital-first strategy announced last Friday (nma.co.uk 17 June 2011).
The publisher said it will put digital platforms and development ahead of print to help it cut costs and halt losses in response to sustained upheaval across the media sector, which has seen a rise in digital audiences but declines in print circulation, print readership and, as a result, print ad revenues.
...While UK nationals guardian.co.uk and Mail Online are on a determined expansion drive in the US, conversely overseas news titles in the UK are beginning to see double-figure growth, starting to compete with homegrown publications, according to figures from UKOM/Nielsen.
UKOM/Nielsen rankings released last week, showing the top 40 news sites by unique UK visitors for May 2011, found that The Huffington Post, India Times and The Washington Post all experienced double-digit growth from May 2010 (nma.co.uk 27 June 2011).
The Huffington Post grew its audience by 26% to 459,000 unique visitors, while India Times was up 124% to 358,000. The Washington Post jumped 41% to 253,000 unique visitors.
http://www.nma.co.uk/3028050.article?cmpid=NMAE01&cmptype=newsletter&email=true

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