Media&Marketing: It has been a dramatic few weeks for the normally staid newspaper sector in Northern Ireland.
One paper, the Daily View, has shut its doors, while another, Daily Ireland, has confirmed plans to cut its workforce by a third.
When it was first published five weeks ago, Daily View decided to avoid what it called "orange and green" politics and concentrated instead on "bread-and-butter issues".
But after only five weeks, the formula proved to be a flop and its owner, Local Press Limited - in turn owned by British venture capital group 3i - pulled the plug on its €1.47 million investment. The paper had an initial print run of about 30,000 copies but sources believe its sale was minuscule during the five weeks.
Because no ABC figures were ever published for the paper, it is difficult to know how badly it fared, but advertising agencies believe it was producing an average sale of less than 1,000 copies a day.
Building circulation in Northern Ireland is difficult in the current climate.
In line with trends in Britain, circulations for the main titles in the North are under significant pressure.
The last set of figures (released for the six months to the end of December) showed significant year-on-year declines for the News Letter (down 3.9 per cent) and the Belfast Telegraph (down 8.3 per cent).
The Irish News is one of the few success stories of recent years in the North. It now has an average daily sale of about 50,000 and, thanks to better distribution, increased investment and a rising Catholic population, has managed to buck the downward trend evident across the sector.
The launch of Daily Ireland, a paper aimed at nationalists and republicans on both sides of the Border, has shaken up the market, but so far there is little sign the Irish News has suffered.
Like the Daily View, it has yet to produce six-monthly ABC figures, so getting a fix on sales is difficult. Most observers believe its average sale is no higher than 10,000, the majority of it in Northern Ireland.
While the paper would find it hard to survive financially on that number, it is part of the highly profitable Andersonstown News Group, which comprises the Andersonstown News, the North Belfast News, the South Belfast News and Lá, the Irish language paper.
The recently announced lay-offs by the newspaper were blamed by management on a lack of government advertising, but advertising agencies say they want to see how the paper fares on a more long-term basis.
"Advertising is bought on the basis of a long track record of strong sales," said Sam McIlveen, media analyst with the leading advertising agency in Belfast, AV Browne.
He said that, with falling circulations and radio and television eating into advertising budgets generally in the North, it was always going to be difficult for Daily View and Daily Ireland to sustain themselves.
But he said innovation elsewhere had paid off.
"We have seen that with the Irish News and a new compact edition of the Belfast Telegraph. There are things happening in the market to address the overall negative trends," he commented."
As with press markets in other countries, scale tends to count ultimately and this is what appears to have happened in the case of the Daily View. Its main rival was the Belfast Telegraph, the largest selling newspaper in the market.
Owned by Sir Anthony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media, it has deep pockets, even though its sales have been falling for some time.
While the Daily View's attempt to break away from the sectarian culture of the past may have been brave, the venture was not able to cope with the commercial realities of the present.
These realities involve about 18 titles circulating in Northern Ireland every day. The popularity of British tabloids in recent years has added to the competitive atmosphere. For example, the Sun is now believed to hold 25 per cent of the whole Northern Ireland market.
Circulation boost
Staying with the press, the biggest circulation booster for British newspapers this year was was not the marriage of Charles and Camilla, but a previously little known Japanese puzzle game known as Sudoku.
Described as Japan's answer to the cryptic crossword, the game involves players solving a puzzle by placing the numbers one to nine into grids.
The Times of London introduced the game into the UK and, since then, virtually every other national title has followed its lead, even the Sun.
Newspapers report receiving thousands of e-mails and letters from readers about the game.With that kind of response it can only be a matter of time before Irish publishers take a look at Sudoku.
Emmet Oliver can be contacted at eoliver@irish-times.ie
