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Just weeks before the most audacious revenue bid in British journalism history, The Times has moved to cut jobs and slash budgets across its sister totals. An internal memo revealed that up to 50 members of staff will go and News International's Sun and News of the World will also suffer a ten per cent editorial budget cut to stem "unsustainable losses". A two week voluntary redundancy scheme will now open - compulsory redundancies have not been ruled out. From June the leading broadsheet and the Sunday Times will bill users £1 a day for access and £2 for a weeks readership online. Pre-tax losses for the Times and Sunday Times in the year to June 2009 increased to £87.7m from £50.2m the year before.
Losing a "significant amount of money"
James Harding, editor of The Times, told staff today that Times Newspapers Limited, the News International subsidiary which is home to The Times and The Sunday Times, was losing a "significant amount of money". The memo continued, saying management had started a process to "cut costs, reduce our losses and free up resources for the future of our journalism". He added: "Until we know the exact number of people who will be leaving voluntarily we will not know what the number of compulsory redundancies might be. While a voluntary redundancy programme will slightly extend the period of uncertainty, I hope that in these difficult times it will create some opportunities for people who choose to leave our business. Our losses are unsustainable. We cannot ensure the long-term future of this paper and our futures in journalism if we cannot make a viable business out of The Times. Second, we are clearly in a period of galloping technological change and we need to ensure that we have the resources to invest so that we can lead the market in digital journalism." Many in the industry have predicted the pay wall move after the Australian media baron started charging readers for content with his other two flagship titles, the Wall Street Journal and the FT. The strategy has been high risk but widely accepted as successful given the perishable quality of business news - pay walls are set for News International's NewsCorporation, MediaNews and the New York Times from next year. "Critical step"
News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks has called the pay wall "a crucial step towards making the business of news an economically exciting proposition".
Both titles will launch new websites in this month, separating their digital presence for the first time and replacing the existing, combined site, Times Online. The two new sites will be available for a free trial period to registered customers. And payment will give customers access to both sites. Ms Brooks added that the decision to charge came: "...at a defining moment for journalism... We are proud of our journalism and unashamed to say that we believe it has value. "This is just the start. The Times and The Sunday Times are the first of our four titles in the UK to move to this new approach. We will continue to develop our digital products and to invest and innovate for our customers."
FT success
The Financial Times has 121,000 paying online subscribers who opt for various premium services, estimated to contribute about £30m annually in direct reader revenue. Both the FT and the Wall Street Journal have raised their print and online subscription fees whilst most papers struggle in a recession hit advertising crisis. For the first time in its history, the Financial Times' subscription and other reader revenues exceeded its advertising income. Last year digital and other reader revenues made up two-thirds of Financial Times Group earnings - advertising contributed about 25 percent of revenues. There has been dismay in some quarters that the bold move is not being coordinated with other major media groups, making it more likely the scheme will fail. Factors such as the BBC’s inability to charge for content and that one or two papers not toeing the industry line and cleaning up their rivals readership and advertising, makes concerted efforts to stem the systemic decline of the printed press a media holy grail.
1.9m read FT
Yesterday the Financial Times released new readership figures claiming 1.9m readers a day across its various publishing platforms, a modest rise from last year. Total print circulation of the FT dropped 6.4 per cent in March to 401,286 and the FT does not publish independently audited web traffic figures. The new figure is based on readership surveys, ABC circulation figures and FT research and is compiled with the help of accountants PricewaterhouseCoopers. According to this new "average daily global audience figure", the FT’s UK print edition had 433,000 readers per day in November, or nearly four per copy. Average online readership was 138,066 per day.
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