Report as sent to OhmyNews
Free News Briefing from Financial Times now out in PDF
April 18th
FTpm is now available.The first Financial Times 'Evening Briefing' is available for download from www.ft.com/ftpm. It is just two A4 pages but includes comment, photographs, news and advertising. The aim is to encourage more use of the website and the full printed version published each morning. There will be a hard copy format distributed in London as well as a PDF version available on the web for download from 4pm London time each weekday.
www.ft.com/ftpm
This is the most public example so far of a 'digital edition' of a UK newspaper. Last year ABC UK announced that they would include 'digital editions' in certificates for print circulations although the figures would be shown seperately. So far no newspapers have 'opted in' for this so there is still no solid information on the flows of income from paid web access to content. The Guardian has been offering a digital edition including PDF for some time but has yet to promote this in the print version or to mention the option in articles about the declining print circulation of UK newspapers.
The Financial Times has over 76,000 paid web subscriptions for access to the full content of their site. According to estimates in the Guardian the UK fully paid circulation may be obnly just over 100,000. So the web circulation is already significant. Printed in 23 cities the total circulation is 425,00 with an estimated readership of 1.6 million. The number of visitors to the website in a month is estimated at 3.6 million.
It is claimed that website broke even in 2002 but there is very little detail on how the finances of the print and web aspects compare. Until circulation figures are better presented it continues to be the case that newspapers think mainly about the hard copy aspects of their operations.
The first edition includes an advert from GE. If the PDF version is downloaded outside the UK there could be enough support for the project to be expanded. One of the issues around the ABC situation is that advertising agencies have not yet established ways to assess the benefits of digital circulation.
The Guardian has reported some pressure on Pearson because of losses at the Financial Times.
Martin Cobb from Franklin Templeton was quoted as saying that "You could argue that something like the FT would be worth more to somebody else." About Pearson itself one large UK shareholder, speaking on condition of anonymity, said "I can't remember anything going particularly right since the disastrous dotcom investment."
A different view would be that the internet has now reached the point when it should get more attention, not less. The FT may be about to transition to a point where the internet activity is as significant as the print. This may be true for other London titles if circulation continues to decline. Pearson still attend the Learning Technology show with books for the European Computer Driving Licence. They may look more at e-learning as such in future. Penguin have started to publish e-books but so far have not done a lot to promote this.
The PDF news briefing could be the start of a new direction and is worth explaining. If the business model for the FT as a news organisation were better documented then other titles might publish figures to compare their situation. Media Guardian today included an article by Roy Greenslade commenting on decisions by Trinity Mirror to concentrate more resources on online advertising and a digital edition for the Newcastle Journal. A report on this states that Trinity Mirror lost £23m in 2001 on online activities but moved 'into the black' during 2004. "You don't necessarily build good publishing businesses by being profitable in the first year," said Humphrey Cobbold, director of strategy at Trinity Mirror group.
The BBC Today program stated that the FT could come under pressure because of 'falling circulation'. Actually paid web subscriptions are increasing and there could be increased advertising income from the website and FTpm. The FT has been going some time so it may be hard to think about as a web startup. However the web aspects are now significant. There is a stronger case over time for ABC to publish full figures on circulation so that a full financial model of news organisations is possible.
The Guardian news report on Trinity Mirror includes a mention for their own digital edition. Roy Greenslade has yet to discuss any detail on this but the circulation figures published on the same page as his article show an annual decline for the Guardian print version of about 5%.