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| Online Bingo to Save UK Tabloids? |
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UK-based tabloids The Sun and News of the World see the Internet as the way forward for their non-cover price income. MD of the two newspapers, Mike Anderson, predicts that within 5 years digital sources will make up 50% of this income.
Anderson referred to seven customer-facing ventures that are targeted as the key drivers of this growth. The major players are Online Bingo, Dating and Betting, with mobile phone football action forming another digital source. Limited search engine revenues are also hoped to contribute to growth.
Speaking at a press conference in Glasgow, Anderson said the success of the new ventures would be dependent on the newspapers continuing to sell enough copies to keep the brands attractive. In other words, marketing The Sun to keep it as big as it has been and to grow it still further will fuel readers to play at their Online Bingo sites.
The need to generate income digitally as been intensified by the slashing of cover prices due to ruthless price wars with other tabloids and papers including the Daily Mail and the Daily Star.
Jim Chisholm, an adviser to the World Association of Newspapers, spoke out at the same press conference stating that chronic under-investment in the British press ‘would see closures and consolidation within the next five to 10 years’. He warned, "Unless newspaper companies learn to invest, some of them are going to disappear," he said.
Ironically, the Internet is seen as a major cause in the decline in revenue from classified advertising. Chisholm explained "In the Netherlands and Switzerland, companies have lost 50% of their classified in the last five years. So far, British newspapers have retained their revenues better than market conditions would suggest, but severe decline is around the corner." |
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