Just like people, newspapers have a life cycle e.g from birth to death. The cycle can be divided into five (5) stages namely: introduction, growth, maturity, saturation and decline. A media firm’s marketing success largely depends on its ability to understand and manage the life cycle of its newspaper. In Nigeria: All newspapers are local in contents
A newspaper life cycle is therefore the amount of time a newspaper goes from being introduced into the market until it’s taken off the newsstands either voluntarily or otherwise. The concept of newspaper life cycle helps inform business decision-making, from content and distribution, pricing and promotion to expansion or cost-cutting.
The length of the life cycle varies; it ranges from a few weeks to several decades. The shape of the sales and profit curves will also vary. However, the basic shape and relationship between the two curves are usually the same.
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Certainly, not all companies’ newspapers go through all the stages. Some may fail in the introductory stage; other firms may not proceed with their brand until the market is in the growth or maturity stage. In virtually all cases, decline stage is inevitable because a better and less expensive newspaper is developed to fill the same need or a competitor does a superior marketing job.
INTRODUCTION: During the first stage of a newspaper’s life cycle, it is launched in a full-scale production and marketing programmes. It has gone through embryonic stages of product development. A newspaper begins with an idea, and within the confines of modern business, it isn’t likely to go further until it undergoes research and development (R & D) and is found to be feasible and potentially profitable. At that point, the newspaper is produced. This pioneering stage is the most risky and expensive one because it is always associated with failures. Operations are characterized by high costs, low sales volume and limited reach among other operational challenges. The readers/buyers do not realize that they want the newspaper nor do they understand how it will benefit them. Media managers are known for not carrying out a very detailed marketing research before entering the market and in most cases, marketing experts are not involved during the concept development stage.
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Some of the newspapers that failed at this stage were National Post, National Life, Third Eye, Nigerian Compass, National Mirror, National Light, National Times, National Post, Comet, Anchor, Post Express, The Spectator, The Next, etc. They failed due to poor content, lack of target market, biased news coverage, lack of marketing efforts, wrong launch time, late arrival of the newspaper, poor printing quality, imposition of publishers’ opinions, wrong newspapers’ design, unrealistic cost projections, inadequate feasibility studies of technical requirement/market analysis/financial viability, wrong printing of a well designed newspaper, poor selection of staff, initial defective training/lack of follow up training, low morale and bad management.
GROWTH: In the growth stage, both the sales and the profit curves rise, often at a rapid rate. Existing newspapers improve on their strategies. Promotional strategy is now “buy-my-brand” rather than “try-my-brand”. The efforts have to be intensified just for constant and continuous reminding of the current and potential readers/buyers. The distribution outlets increase and economies of scale are introduced. The newspaper is penetrating gradually thereby, recording better sales at least more than what was experienced at the introductory stage.
It is imperative here to sound a warning that a newspaper can die at this stage without reaching other stages. Appropriate blending of the marketing mix is highly desirable at this stage. Newspapers that failed at this stage were Champion, Sunray, News Star, Daily Independent, Monitor, Hallmark, etc. Some newspapers that once passed through this stage but relapsed can be operationally categorized of being in the decline stage.
It must be noted that any newspaper that has not reached a break-even point or relapsed after attaining break-even point after seven years of its corporate existence is a failure and is now stagnated. It must be known that all businesses are grown from loss to break-even point and finally to profit over a period of time. That of newspaper is even more worrisome because with all facilities put in place, time tested contents, availability of running capital coupled with good marketing drive on the management’s part, it will take at least seven years before such a media company can be talking of break-even point. The gestation period is now extended to a decade based on the current economic situation that has been aggravated by inflation and recession. Whenever a media firm fails to declare profit on a continuous basis, such a firm has not crossed the red line.
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MATURITY AND SATURATION: Sometimes, it is difficult to tell whether we are dealing with two separate stages or simply separate parts of one stage. During the first part of the period, we see sales still increasing but a decreasing rate. While the sales curve is leveling off, the profit starts to decline. Marginal publishers are forced to drop out of the market. Price competition becomes increasingly severe and the publisher assumes a greater share of the total promotional effort as he fights to retain his position in the market. This is characterized by slow growth or stable growth. Media owners or managers should device means of adding more packages into their newspapers i.e adding of necessary features that will enhance further acceptance in the market. A newspaper house is expected to delve more into investigative and exclusive stories as these will create a sort of brand loyalty in the readers’ minds.
Virtually, all the pre Independence newspapers fell into this category. They were Lagos Times and Gold Coast Advertiser (1882), The Eagle and Lagos Critic (1883), The Mirror (1887), The Weekly Record (1890), Nigerian Chronicle (1908), Lagos Standard (1908), Nigerian Pioneer ((1914), Lagos Daily News (1925), Daily Times (1925*), The Spectator (1923), African Messenger (1921), Daily Service (1933), Gaskiya Ta Fi Kurabo (1933), Nigerian Citizen (1939), The Dawn (1921), West African Advertiser (1935), West African Pilot (1937) and Nigerian Tribune (1949*).
DECLINE AND POSSIBLE ABANDONMENT: This is the stage where over 75% of income is derived from 5% of the sales locations. For virtually all newspapers, obsolescence sets in inevitably as new newspapers start their own life cycles and replace the old ones. Cost control becomes increasingly important as demand drops. Space advertising declines and a number of competitors withdraw from the market. Whether the newspaper has to be abandoned or the surviving publishers can continue on a profitable basis in a specialized or limited market often depends on the management’s abilities and capabilities. Furthermore, sales of the newspapers start to fall and profitability decreases. This is primarily due to the market entry of other innovative or substitute newspapers that satisfy reader/buyer needs better than the current newspaper. In this context, any innovative newspaper is a new newspaper; innovation can be in form of newspaper, market and marketing mix modications; it may not necessarily mean a newspaper with a new name. Equally, market in this context refers to the buyers/readers. The Punch, The Guardian, The Nation, The Sun, Vanguard, Daily Trust, This Day, etc newspapers are in this stage.
There are several strategies that can be employed in the decline stage. For example, media managers should engage in milking or harvesting- reducing marketing efforts and attempt to maximize the life of the newspaper for as long as possible and slowly reducing distribution channels and pulling the newspaper from underperforming geographic areas. Such a strategy allows the company to pull the newspaper out and attempt to introduce a replacement newspaper. Selling the newspaper to areas where it has a comparative advantage is another strategy. This allows the company to dispose of a low-profit newspaper while retaining loyal readers/buyers.
The underlying principle of the newspaper life cycle is fairly simple – as a newspaper grows old, it tends to become less popular, while the demand for a new and up-to-date newspaper draws more demand that increases quite rapidly once the newspaper gains acceptance after its launch. Most of the media firms acknowledge the concept of the newspaper life cycle and the fact that all the newspapers that they deal with have a limited lifespan. Accordingly, these media firms make regular investments to either develop a new newspaper or extend the life cycle of an existing newspaper, which would ensure that their businesses continue to grow.
So, in order to be successful, companies usually intend to have multiple newspapers at different stages of the life cycle at any point in time. However, it is important that these companies proactively manage all the newspapers during their lifespan by deploying adequate resources along with effective sales and marketing strategies.
In conclusion, media managers should bear this in mind: whether they are developing a brand new newspaper or working with a mature, well-established brand, they can use the newspaper life cycle as a guide for marketing campaigns having known that they are in business to make profit.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy.
0802 305 1315.
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com.
