How to make printed publications popular again. What else will paper endure

graduate student of the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. M.A. Sholokhov,
Correspondent of the newspaper "Vuzovsky Bulletin".

Annotation.
The article deals with the problem of the transition of a printed publication to an electronic format. The author compares the features of print and online publications and formulates recommendations for the organic transition of the Vuzovsky Vestnik newspaper to the Internet format.
Keywords.
Online publication, electronic format, printed version, audience.

THE PROBLEM OF TRANSITION PUBLICATION TO THE ONLINE VERSION OF THE EXAMPLE "VUZOVSKIY VESTNIK"
T.I. Alexeeva,
undergraduate of Faculty of Journalism of Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities,
"VuzovskiyVestnik" newspapercorrespondent.
e-mail: This address Email protected from spam bots. You must have JavaScript enabled to view.
Sholokhov Moscow State University for the Humanities

Abstract.
This arcticle is about the problem of the transition publication in online format. The author compares the features of print and online publications and formulates recommendations for the transition of "Vuzovskiyvestnik" newspaper to the online format.
keywords.
Network edition, online version, publicizing, the audience.

Modern print media are gradually losing their audience, moving to the Internet space. In our opinion, this is primarily due to affordability. Spreading WI-FI networks and the growth in the number of Internet service providers have undoubtedly had an impact. Computer technology has taken a leading position in the market necessary goods. Access to the virtual space today is carried out not only from a desktop computer and laptop, but also from a tablet, smartphone, player, e-book and TV. According to TNS-Russia, the Internet audience grew by six percent over the year. Today, more than 61 million Russians regularly go online, preferring to get information from news agencies and publications, which are so widely and diversely represented on the net.

Almost all Russian publications are looking for a place on the Internet, creating electronic versions, starting pages on social networks, mastering mobile applications. This is explained by a number of advantages of the electronic format. First, from an economic point of view, it is more profitable to offer information through electronic publications. No need to invest in printing, paper, ink, distribution services. Secondly, the absolute accessibility of the publication. Today, on the Internet, almost all mass, business and other publications are in the public domain. The question is, is all the information published in print publications available on the Internet? In the case of a positive answer, the meaning of printed publications is lost. Nevertheless, they persist, find financial support and retain the audience. Let's try to explain it. The audience that prefers the printed version of newspapers is aged, most often they are conservative people who are used to the newspaper at breakfast or in the subway. By electronic means, and, accordingly, they do not use the Internet. Such readers need the smell of ink and the crunch of newsprint somewhat more than the content. But for more advanced users or those wishing to join them, there is an opportunity to read all the articles on the electronic pages of the publication.

Yakov Grabar says that "publications do not need to get rid of the printed format, but in a special way supplement it with new tools that allow the printed press to keep up with the times."

Let us dwell on the printed edition of the all-Russian information and analytical newspaper Vuzovsky Vestnik and analyze the possibilities of its digitization in the conditions of virtualization of the information environment.

Based on the typological features of online publications proposed by A.I. Akopov in the article of the same name, we will make an attempt to compare them with the signs of printed publications. “Some of the features inherent in printed periodicals or characterizing them are no different from the same features in online media. However, some differ significantly .

When a printed publication is transferred to an electronic format, the following characteristics remain unchanged: publisher, intended purpose of the publication, internal structure, genres and authors. It should be said about each sign separately.

The publisher, in this case, remains A.B. Sholokhov, Chief Editor newspaper "Vuzovsky Bulletin".

The purpose of the publication also could not change. The primary task of the media is to inform, as well as popularize knowledge, educate the population, propagate ideas and views, etc.

The internal structure of the online edition differs little from the structure of the printed edition, this is due to the unity of goals and the traditional approach of publishers who create online magazines and newspapers “in the image and likeness” of traditional paper, while maintaining themes, headings.
The genre composition of the online edition also repeats the printed version, the only difference is that the online edition is dominated by short informational messages.

According to A. Akopov, an author in a periodical online publication is absolutely new category journalists - network journalist. In the case of Vuzovsky Bulletin and its interpretation in the electronic edition of Vuzvest, the authors are unchanged, they are only added from completely different, new publications.

Let's take a closer look at the typological features that have undergone changes during the transition from print to online publication.

First of all, it is the reader. In addition to the audience declared by Vuzovsky Vestnik, consisting of rectors, vice-rectors, teachers, graduate students, students and applicants, that is, an interested audience, a stream of random readers appears on the Internet for one reason or another who ended up on the page of Vuzvest. Among these random users electronic networks most likely to be a young man, a resident big city where Internet access is widely available. The transition to the electronic edition makes it possible to advertise for free and effectively new format on the Internet using social media, blogs, microblogs. Following the example of such publications as "Moskovsky Komsomolets", "Kommersant", the publication "Vuzovsky Vestnik" should also create its own page in today's popular social networks: "VKontakte", "Facebook", "Google+". Feedback with the reader can be established by conducting polls on the pages electronic edition. These can be both questions: “Who would you like to read an interview with on the pages of our newspaper?”, And deeper, problematic ones, “How do you evaluate new law"About education"?

The design of the electronic edition differs significantly from the printed edition due to the emergence of new technical capabilities: placement of better quality photos and more, sound and video files.

Periodicity is one of the important and controversial typological features of the online publication. The electronic "Vuzvest" does not have a strict periodicity and therefore is updated as materials become interesting, in the opinion of the editor-in-chief. Volume is also a controversial characteristic and, in fact, is not limited by anything.

The difficulty lies in determining the circulation, one of the typological features. The only way to do this is to install a counter on the server or website of the publication. The hit counter makes it possible to keep track of the number of unique users and people who repeatedly visit the site.

Thus, the need for the transition of the printed edition to the Internet format is obvious. This step will significantly expand and update our audience, will enable the printed publication to offer its articles in a completely new format, using multimedia technologies.

List of sources:

1. www.tns-global.ru
2. Akopov A.I. Typological features of online publications // Philological Bulletin of Rostov state university. - 2000. - No. 1. - p.43
3. Yakov Grabar "The future of print media: circulation is falling, online editorials are growing" [ Electronic resource] // RBC. – 2013 – URL: http://top.rbc.ru/economics/13/02/2013/844874.shtml

How to open new magazine and not burn out. The monthly publication should bring in a profit of $100,000. A tempting result, but it is not easy to achieve. Why only 300 out of 13 thousand registered journals actually come out and how to become one of them.

In Russia, a successful magazine published once a month must generate a profit of at least $100,000. There are two ways to achieve such an excellent result: by purchasing a license for a foreign publication or by promoting a domestic brand.

prospects

There are 37,000 registered publications in Russia, of which almost 13,000 are journals. A huge amount, which is difficult to digest even for the “most reading” country in the world. For comparison, about 2,000 magazines are published in Germany, and about 8,000 in the USA. True, the overwhelming majority of publications registered with the Ministry of Press are not published. Only every third journal can be considered conditionally alive, and no more than 300 journals actually work.

The rest are either already bankrupt or ready to go bankrupt. This is a clear evidence that, in order to maintain viability, it is not enough for a print publication to form a staff of journalists and photographers, it also needs to be able to profitably sell the fruits of its creative work.

As you know, many people prefer to learn from their own mistakes, which is probably why several new magazines appear on the Russian market every year, hoping to take their place under the sun. Most of the new ones are glossy monthly magazines, which today belong to the dynamically developing segment of the mass media.

In the overcrowded segment of business weeklies and any newspapers, all the places have long been occupied, but it is quite possible to organize a new monthly magazine, and with the right approach, a magazine can be profitable.

Yours among strangers

About a quarter of all Russian journals are published under foreign licenses. This means that the name, concept, part of the materials in the journal is a tracing paper of a foreign counterpart. It is foreign women's glossy magazines that occupy the niche of the most profitable ones. These publications always have an abundance of advertising and large circulations.

Readers are happy to buy such magazines, and this is not surprising - the high quality of workmanship and a consistent concept make this product in demand. Advertisers are attracted by a well-known brand on the market. Of the Russian magazines, only Caravan of History can be attributed to the glossy leaders.

Foreign "gloss" in Russia is represented by Independent Media publishing houses (Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, FHM, Harpers Bazar, Home Hearth, Yes), Conde Nast Publishing House (Vogue, GQ), Burda Publishing House (Playboy), Publishing House AFS (Elle), Gruner + Jahr (Geo).

There are 2.5 times more domestic magazines on the market than Western ones, but only a few can withstand competition with foreign brands. Domestic brands are represented by the publishing houses 7 Days, April, Orbita Media Service, Za Rulem and some others.

prospects

Originally domestic projects pay off much longer than licensed media, which explains their very modest presence on the market. Even the most famous Russian magazines had to make their way with considerable effort, spending large sums on advertising. Cosmopolitan, Vogue, MensHealth were able to climb to the top of the rankings much faster.

The timing factor cannot be discounted. Cosmopolitan at one time managed to become profitable already from the third issue, largely because it was the first women's glossy magazine in Russia. Today, even licensed publications have difficulty launching.

The main international brands are already represented on the Russian market, and one should not expect the appearance of any completely new leaders. Western novelties in the vast majority are simply clones of already popular publications. Russian journals don't have problems with oversaturation of the information space, but they have another problem - the lack of initial capital.

The main source of income for the glossy magazine is advertising revenue (up to 80%). When working with a licensed magazine, the publisher receives an advertising budget. Large advertisers, when working in the local market, use the money of parent companies located abroad for advertising. Justify at the head office the cost of advertising to no one famous magazine it would be problematic, so licensed branded publications become an advertising platform.

The obvious and unavoidable disadvantage of a licensed business is the obligation to pay royalties to the brand owner. The size of these deductions ranges from 10 to 25% from advertising and sales. If we are talking about a super popular publication, royalties can be six figures.

Domestic journals do not have such problems at all. The task of "our" magazines is to wait for profits and not "stretch their legs" ahead of time. According to various estimates, the project can pay off in the best case three years after launch.

area

From 20 to 30% of profit monthly receive from right choice and expanding the scope of the journal. Many publishers know that the way to the counter is through the entry fee to the wholesaler.

According to gossip, in order to enter the Moscow market, you need to pay $40-50 thousand, excluding advertising campaign. In the regions, the process of entering the market is much cheaper, but there are no less problems. From the provinces, you can not wait for money at all, and it can be difficult to return the circulation.

A common problem for almost everyone is the banal lack of space on the counters of kiosks and stalls. The abundance of magazines simply does not allow placing a new edition in such a way that it will be noticed. As a result, only clear favorites, like Cosmo or "Caravan of stories", are actively sold, which buyers ask about without trying to find them on the counter.

If the publisher believes that the reader will not be able to remain indifferent to the artistic merits of the magazine, and this is quite enough to fall in love with the public, he is deeply mistaken. First of all, you need to interest a potential reader, and only then support his attachment to the magazine with meaningful materials and good design.

Licensed Readers

Along with a well-known name, licensees get access to the archives of the owner. The eternal problem of glossy publishers is the selection of highly professional photographs. To a lesser extent, this applies to articles. Gloss without materials about Western stars will not be able to survive.

Especially the lack of interesting and informative materials is felt in fashion magazines which is impossible to imagine without getting acquainted with haute couture collections and interviews with leading designers. The fashion community is so closed off that a local brand has no chance of infiltrating it.

The right to use the "bins" of the brand is granted to the publisher upon signing a license agreement that strictly regulates the existence of the brand on the market. Violation of these rules will result in license revocation.

The main problem of foreign gloss is an adequate translation, or rather, the conversion of the product. Neither the structure nor the demands of our audience yet correspond to the structure of Western society, under which the concepts are fitted. The domestic reader, out of habit, considers the magazine an entertainment tool, and not a pass to a social circle in which it is customary to wear socks of a certain manufacturer and drive cars of recognized brands.

Let's see how the Russian version of Playboy magazine differs from the original? We reviewed the filings of the American and our magazine in one year. Here are a few observations in different headings.

"Girl of the Month"

The American ideal is a blonde with half-open glossy lips. An overgrown schoolgirl in a uniform plaid skirt, like Britney Spears. The image of Britney Spears, who has matured by 10 years, is slightly inferior - a blonde in candid poses. Russian "Girl of the Month" is always a slender young lady without silicone. The obvious excess of cosmetics is the fruit of the efforts of diligent makeup artists.

"Hero of the room"

Americans usually have singers, for example, Fred Durst. The main theme is creativity and sex. The style is akin to lyrics: “She slept with my friend, but she was only with me because of the money. She took my heart and threw it in a blender because I'm an idiot. I put up with it all for sex."

In the Russian version, the characters are talking to a mature reader. “My ambitions are satisfied. I have nothing to prove to my woman, because she loves me and is devoted to me. To finally assert myself, I need to take risks. For example, I started filming a new movie.”

As you know, the editorial office of our magazine is located in Moscow on Polkova Street, not far from the Savelovskaya metro station. This is where editors come up with topics and write articles by tapping on their computer keyboards. However, a magazine that shines with glossy covers and smells of printing ink is born elsewhere.

Three basic methods for printing on paper

In a five-minute walk at a fast pace from the Pechatniki metro station, inconspicuous buildings are located. The largest printing house in Moscow, Pushkinskaya Ploshchad, is located here, where several dozen monthly and weekly magazines are printed. Including the one you are holding in your hands - "Popular Mechanics". For our anniversary - the 100th issue - we decided to tell how our magazine is printed.

Leave a mark on paper

There are several ways to get an image on paper. The oldest method, dating back to the pioneer printer Gutenberg, who invented in the 1440s a method of printing using raised mirrored letters, from which he typed lines, is still used, as in the old days, for printing books - this is the so-called letterpress printing. The parts of the printing plate that apply ink to the paper where the image should be left (they are called printed elements) are made convex, and the blank elements are recesses. Text editions are still printed in this way, especially one-two-color ones - for example, books.

Gravure printing uses forms in which the printed elements are indentations and the blanks are bulges (in the same plane). After applying the ink to the form and before printing, the ink is removed from the blank elements. Since this method reproduces semitones well, it is used, for example, to obtain printing products with many high quality full color illustrations.

Printing methods differ in the configuration of printed and blank elements on printing forms. In letterpress printing, printed elements are located above whitespace. A layer of ink is applied to the printed elements with a roller, which is then transferred to the paper. In the gravure printing method, printed elements are recessed relative to whitespace. The ink is applied to the entire printing plate, and then removed from the blank elements with a squeegee. In this case, the depth of the cells of printed elements can be variable, which makes it possible to reproduce halftones very well. In the flat printing method, blank and printed elements are on the same level, but differ in their wettability. Thus, the ink is retained only on the printed elements, from where it is transferred to the intermediate (offset) cylinder, and then to the paper.

Offset printing is the most common type of flat printing. In this method, the printed and blank elements are on the same level, but differ in wetting characteristics - the printed elements hold the ink, while the blank ones do not. In addition, the offset method refers to indirect printing methods, that is, the image from the printing plate is first transferred to an elastic cylinder, and from there to paper. Currently, the majority of newspapers, magazines and books are printed using the offset method.

Printing revolutions

Almost until the end of the 19th century, printed matter - newspapers and magazines - were produced using letterpress printing technology, with printers manually typing the printed forms in the form of lines letter by letter. In 1884, the American engineer Ottmar Mergenthaler made the second (after Gutenberg) major revolution in printing - he invented the linotype, a line-moulding machine that largely automated the work of typesetters. This technology was used until the middle of the 20th century, but with the advent of offset printing and phototypesetting, it had to make room. The last step towards modern technology for the production of printed publications occurred in the late 1980s - early 1990s - it was the beginning of mass use computer technology in prepress and printing processes.

Now it is simply impossible to imagine an editorial office, a prepress department or a printing house without computers. Meanwhile, back in the 1970s, the creation of journals looked like this in a simplified form: the authors gave their articles in the form of manuscripts to the editorial office, where they were retyped on typewriters and given to a set from which proofs were made. They were photographed to create an original layout - images on film. This image was projected onto metal plates coated with a photosensitive layer, which were then subjected to chemical etching. As a result of these processes, forms for offset printing were obtained. With the advent of phototypesetting machines, the technology was simplified, and when computers took their places on desktops, it took on an almost modern look - the layout of publications was carried out using computer programs, after which photoforms for the manufacture of offset printing plates were output on special printers. Now the technology looks even simpler - CTP technology (computer-to-plate, directly from a computer layout to a printed form) is almost universally used.

Plate output devices are specialized laser printers, which are printed not on paper, but on aluminum plates coated with a heat-sensitive substance (in the photo - a blue layer). An infrared laser forms an image by heating a layer, which, under the action of heat, changes its properties. The developer dissolves the exposed areas, forming gaps. Then the plates are dried and fired in a special oven to increase the circulation resistance.

Follow the layout

The current technology in a nutshell looks like this. So that readers can take the magazine in their hands, authors and editors write articles - of course, in electronic form. Designers turn text and pictures into a layout, which, after verification, is sent directly to the printing house, where it is subjected to input control. After the layout is checked for compliance technical requirements printing house, the output of forms begins. The layout is arranged in a special way - the pages of the corresponding form are printed not one at a time, but at once with whole notebooks (in the case of Popular Mechanics, a notebook is 48 pages, that is, 24 on each side of the sheet), and they need to be arranged so that after printing and folding (folding) they ended up in the correct order. The layout is also divided by colors in accordance with the CMYK subtractive system adopted in printing (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black).

“The output of offset printing forms is, in general, printing a layout on a printer,” explains Maria Kondrashova, head of the technological department of the Pushkinskaya Ploshchad printing complex. “Of course, not ordinary, but special — our printing house uses output devices for this forms of the Kodak Trendsetter family. They print with a resolution of 2400 dpi, but not on paper, but on aluminum plates 0.2-0.3 mm thick with a special heat-sensitive coating. Where the laser beam hits the coating, it heats up and changes its properties. After exposure, the plate is developed by washing off the destroyed coating. Then the forms pass through a special oven for drying and firing, during which the coating is strengthened, and consequently, the life of the printing plates is increased. If the resource is conventional offset forms amounts to several hundred thousand copies, then fired according to this indicator can already compete with forms for letterpress printing - up to a million or more.

After all these processes, a temporary protective coating is applied to the form, which is washed off before printing (it is necessary to protect the forms from dust and dirt before printing). In order to prepare the plates for printing, it remains only to bend and perforate the edges of the plates - for these fasteners, the forms will be attached to the cylinder of the printing machine.

From form to paper

The finished forms are installed in a Heidelberg Sunday 4000 web printing machine, on which our magazine is printed. Each plate is placed in the appropriate section, according to the number of colors used - black, cyan, magenta and yellow, in this order printing takes place (the form is automatically installed on the printing cylinder).

And then the machine is started - the paper tape begins to unwind from the roll, passing through the printing sections. The scoreboard above the machine shows the print speed - about 12,000 prints (each of them is a notebook, that is, 48 ​​pages, 24 on one side of the sheet, 24 on the other) per hour. But this is only the beginning: since the colors are printed sequentially, they must be matched exactly, otherwise, instead of full-color quality illustrations, we will see something washed out with color borders in the magazine. To prevent this from happening, the machine is equipped with feedback - paper, after paint is applied to it, passes through a spectrophotometer (a scanner that measures the intensity of colors). On the margins of the paper there are special signs - color scales and marks for positioning. By measuring their position and intensity, the computer generates signals for the control system, which shifts the printing forms in the corresponding sections in one direction or another and, if necessary, changes the ink supply.

The initial setting of the position of the forms (preparation) in a fully automatic mode takes about 10-15 minutes, while the machine manages to print about 3,500 notebooks - and all of them are sent for processing after grinding in huge shredders and pressing. When the quality of the resulting prints reaches the required level, the print speed is increased - in normal mode it is about 70,000 impressions per hour. Printing goes almost non-stop, many of the necessary technological operations (for example, washing offset cylinders) are carried out directly "on the go" so as not to knock down the settings - only at a reduced speed (defective notebooks are again sent for recycling). All this happens automatically, although, if necessary, an operator can intervene in the process, observing the print performance and deviations of various parameters from the set values ​​on the control monitors. But the need for such an intervention rarely arises.

Climate control

Print quality depends on many factors, not the least of which is ambient humidity (paper behaves differently with different moisture content). Therefore, in the workshops of Pushkin Square, where printing machines are installed, you can see air humidifiers. Small discs, similar to outlandish UFOs, “hover” in orderly rows under the ceiling, throwing out jets of the smallest water dust. They can be turned on automatically or manually.

Since the printing speed is high, the ink does not have time to dry naturally, so the paper passes through the drying section, and then through the folding machine, which folds - folding the sheet so that after cutting the order of the pages in the notebook is correct. The machine is also equipped with a spine gluing and three-sided trimming system so that it can produce finished 48-page editions or 32-page stapled editions. But in the case of Popular Mechanics, this does not apply, since the magazine consists of several notebooks and, in addition, different paper and a separate process are used for the cover.

An offset printing machine consists of several ink sections, each of which is responsible for printing in its own color: four main typographical ones - CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, blacK - cyan, magenta, yellow, black), as well as additional ones - non-standard colors such as gold or silver, UV inks, etc. Ink from a plate cylinder with a printed form is transferred first to an intermediate offset cylinder made of elastic material, which gave the name to the method (from the English offset - displacement, shift), and then from the offset cylinder to paper.

Goods face

The cover, without any doubt, is the face of the magazine, and its printing is worth mentioning separately. For the cover, thicker and heavier paper is used, folded into stacks of sheets. Therefore, a sheet-fed press from the Heidelberg Speedmaster family is used here. The principle of printing it is the same as that of roll printing, the only difference is in paper - it no longer runs through the printed sections as a continuous tape, but is fed by a special device that grabs the sheets with suction cups. This is a slower process - the maximum print speed is about 16,000 prints per hour. On a sheet of such paper, four sets of Popular Mechanics covers are printed simultaneously (on both sides).

“Many magazines varnish their covers,” says Maria Kondrashova. “Therefore, the machine has a varnishing section with a dryer. In addition, we have several machines that allow us to print not with four colors, but with five or six, that is, using one or two additional non-standard colors from the Pantone catalog or, for example, silver, gold.” One of the notebooks in the April 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics was printed in a similar way (although not in Pushkinskaya Square) - it used fluorescent paint as an additional one, which glowed under the influence of ultraviolet radiation.

Assembling on a conveyor

The last step in creating our magazine is the assembly itself. On the line of glueless bonding, a special machine folds notebooks into right order, performs cutting and gluing at a speed of about 8,000 pieces per hour. The path from the layout to the finished magazine takes Popular Mechanics about a week.

Advertising supplements and booklets, if necessary, are inserted into the magazine on the copy packaging line, after which the finished magazines are wrapped in film and stacked in packs. True, according to Maria Kondrashova, the machine has its limitations - it can place attachments either under the first page of the cover or in a random place inside the magazine. If it is necessary to make an investment on a specific page, robots are powerless here - only manual labor can solve this problem.

Since its inception, newspapers have not lost their relevance. One can recall the words of Ostap Bender, who believed that people who do not read newspapers should be morally killed on the spot. The hero of "12 chairs" would be pretty surprised if he found himself today in the most reading metro in the world - Moscow. And the point is not that today the press is being read more or less, its format has simply changed significantly.

If people used to skip their stops by burying themselves in the spreads of newspapers and magazines, today we are increasingly starting a trip to work or school by reading publications on our smartphones, tablets and other technical devices of the digital age.

The apparent decline in the number of printed publications in the hands of readers demonstrates the reorientation of the press market. One of the main trends in the Western market of periodicals is the complete rejection of the paper format of newspapers and magazines, or at least their addition with online versions. Decreasing advertising revenues in print media in Western Europe and the United States, a reduction in professional staff, as well as the entry of the press into today's super-popular social networks make the future of periodical printing on paper somewhat uncertain.

At the same time, not everything is so obvious on a global scale. There is a real newspaper boom in Africa, the Middle East and, first of all, in Asia. The active departure of the press to the Internet in the West could not affect the fact that the global circulation of printed newspapers in 2011. increased by 1.1% compared to the previous year, to 512 million copies. Since 2007 to 2011 this figure increased even more significantly - by 4.2%.

Newsweek celebrates anniversary digitally

Mid-October 2012 American weekly Newsweek - one of the world's most famous and respected print publications - announced the complete rejection of its paper version from the beginning of 2013. and transition to digital format. Modern economic realities left no other options for the management of the magazine. In 2012 Newsweek has accumulated $50 million in debt, the weekly has been losing about $40 million a year, and its circulation has more than halved in the last ten years to 1.5 million.

Newsweek's refocusing on a subscription-based Internet audience will allow the magazine to "accelerate the resurgence of a great publication," said Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of the weekly. She stated that no one can resist the current trends in the press market, while noting that the rejection of the paper version for lovers of the "romance" of the printed edition will be a difficult moment. Newsweek management expects "at least hundreds of thousands" of the magazine's current subscribers to become digital users.

Still, the desire to follow current trends is unlikely to save Newsweek from difficulties in the online publishing market. Despite an almost five-fold increase in the number of tablet computer users in the US over the past two years, to 70 million people, the magazine will have to withstand fierce competition in a new market for itself. And according to many analysts, Newsweek's reorientation is doomed to fail. For example, financial blogger Reuters Felix Salmond believes that "the chances of digital Newsweek to succeed as an exclusively online subscription-based publication are virtually zero."

Newsweek's complete abandonment of the paper format has been expected over the past years. Due to the magazine's unprofitability, the Washington Post company that owned it in 2010. sold the weekly to businessman Sidney Harman, who agreed to take on Newsweek's debts. And three months later, the magazine was merged with the Daily Beast online newspaper.

Newsweek was founded in New York on February 17, 1933. and managed to a short time become an example of high-quality journalism. Occupying the second place in circulation among American magazines after Time, the publication largely determined the development and formation of the periodical press in post-war America. The last time anyone could read the paper version of Newsweek was December 31, 2012. The magazine will celebrate its 80th anniversary on the Internet under the name Newsweek Global.

Printed publications of the West "sag" under the pressure of the Internet

Newsweek is far from the first American magazine to drop its paper version. November 2010 the third most popular New York weekly in the US, U.S. News & World Report announced the full transition to digital format. Prior to this, due to the decline in circulation and advertising revenue, the publication was forced to become a magazine that comes out once every two weeks, and then even once a month. U.S. News & World Report is known around the world for its rankings of the best colleges, higher educational institutions and US healthcare institutions. The world's largest weekly magazine, Time, is also far from ideal, with print circulation down 19% over the past seven years to 3.3 million.

Reorientation of Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report fits into the general trend of declining American interest in print newspapers and magazines. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans who read newspapers in paper format has fallen from 41% to 23% over the past ten years. They have been reading magazines since 2006. decreased by 7% to date. At the same time, the number of people receiving information from online versions of newspapers is growing at a steady pace. In particular, 55% of the audience stated that they mostly read publications on the Internet. New York Times, 48% USA Today and 44% Wall Street Journal. In total, paid access to news is purchased daily in the US by 53% of tablet owners. And all this is happening against the background of thousands of layoffs of print media employees and more active involvement of newspapers and magazines in social networks.

The situation is similar in Western Europe. Thus, in the UK, the management of the holding that owns the third most popular newspaper in the country - The Guardian, is seriously considering the possibility of a complete transfer of the publication to digital format. A similar fate could befall the weekly Observer, also owned by Guardian News & Media. The management has already promised to reduce the staff of publications by 100-650 people, has decided to abandon a number of published additions to the newspaper and magazine, and has also taken up the issue of optimizing print space. The reason for this was again the losses from paper versions: a year, Guardian News & Media loses about 44 million pounds. Experts expect that the share of British newspapers' revenue from online projects, which currently stands at 7.4%, should rise by 2017. up to 13.9%.

The decline in circulation of printed publications and the fall in advertising revenues did not bypass Germany, on whose territory in the 15th century. that was the invention of the printing press. November 2012 The popular daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau declared bankruptcy, and the unprofitable Financial Times Deutschland closed in December last year. And once again, the life of the printed publications of Germany greatly complicates the active intrusion of the Internet into all spheres of life. In particular, experts from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) point to the "clumsiness" of printed newspapers and magazines in the new conditions, explaining it by the constant costs of promoting and distributing "real" products. Moreover, a survey conducted among young people (18 to 29 years old) in Germany showed that only 1% of them consider print newspapers to be the primary source of information.

The French print press is also struggling to withstand the developmental transformation modern technologies. Over the past ten years, the circulation of one of the country's leading national dailies, Liberation, has fallen by more than 25% to 139,000. The second largest business newspaper in Paris - La Tribune - in January 2012. changed ownership and was forced to completely abandon the paper version, turning into a weekly publication of a magazine format. In order to avoid the bankruptcy of one of the largest daily newspapers in the country - Le Monde - also had to change management. And France Soir, suffering from losses, was not saved from collapse even by a change of owners. The purchase of the newspaper by Alexander Pugachev, the son of Russian businessman Sergei Pugachev, and the cessation of its distribution in paper form did not affect the decision of the French court to declare France Soir bankrupt. Today, to cover debts to creditors, the paper is auctioning off its assets, including furniture and editorial computers.

Developing countries stick to paper

Unlike the advanced countries of the West, the developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Africa are in no hurry to change the printed press to its digital counterpart. Moreover, the growth of newspaper circulation in Asian countries (primarily in India and China) in 2011 more than 3% compared to the previous year contributed to the increase in the global indicator. The expansion of the population in developing countries, the increase in the total wealth and the level of education of their inhabitants, allow us to continue to count on the preservation of this dynamics in the future. Not surprisingly, the list of the 15 most widely circulated newspapers in the world includes five Indian and two Chinese editions.

The Indian print media market has become the fastest growing in the world over the past few years. In 2005-2009 the number of paid daily newspapers in the country has grown by almost one and a half times, and their total number - by about a quarter. In 2008 In terms of the number of purchased daily newspapers, of which about 110 million copies are sold every day, India has managed to bypass the former leader in this indicator - China. The increase in circulation is accompanied by an increase in the income of Indian printed newspapers and magazines from advertising: only in 2010. publications increased them by 32% compared to the previous year.

The newspaper boom in the country was the result of an increase in the literacy rate of the Indian population, which has grown by almost 10% over the past ten years and today stands at about 75%. The newspaper, in the new conditions, according to one of the local editors, creates a certain aura of respect around itself. "As soon as a person in India becomes literate, he immediately buys a newspaper. This "elite" product is in the hands even before buying a phone," he notes. In addition, the Internet does not yet have a significant influence in India. To date, only about 10% of Indians regularly use the Net.

These same factors determine the sharp increase in the print media market in China. At the same time, an additional incentive for its development, in addition to economic growth, urbanization and changes in the level of literacy, was the commercialization of the print media industry in the early 1990s. According to Professor Wu Yang of the University of Swansea, newspapers' market orientation and therefore reliance on advertising rather than government subsidies as their main source of revenue has allowed publications to focus on delivering information that is truly interesting to readers. By the end of 2011 in China, there were already about 2 thousand newspapers, and the circulation of the largest of them - Cankao Xiaoxi - was about 3 million copies (for comparison: The Wall Street Journal, the most widely read in the USA, has a circulation of 1 million). Even greater growth of the print media market in the country is hampered by the fact that publishing houses are forced to adhere to a difficult editorial policy: on the one hand, focusing on the interests of the mass reader, and on the other, withstanding the censorship of the propaganda structures of the Communist Party of China.

Together with the Indian and Chinese print media markets, the Russian one is one of the most dynamically developing in the world. In particular, in 2011 volume of the print media subscription market in the country relative to the level of 2010 increased by 0.45 billion rubles, to 22.9 billion rubles. In addition, according to the Association of Communication Agencies of Russia (ACAR), the volume of advertising in the press in 2012 amounted to 41.2 billion rubles, which is 2% more than a year earlier. The total circulation of print media in our country since 2010 by 2012, according to the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Distributors of Printed Products (ARPP) Alexander Oskin, decreased by 300 million copies, to 2.8 billion copies. But these figures should not be misleading, since a quarter of the newspapers and magazines that disappeared, according to the ARPP representative, were publishing "garbage", that is, non-market media that came out of political, ambitious or corporate considerations.

The Russian press market is very young, so it retains strong reserves of resources for its growth and development. Moreover, the strength of the position of print publications in our country is determined by the insufficient level of information literacy of the inhabitants of Russia, the varying degree of Internet accessibility in the regions, as well as the low purchasing power of the population, which is noticeably inferior even to the average European indicators.

Indirectly, the retention of their positions by the Russian print media is also evidenced by the fact that now there is no data on the quantity and quality of subscriptions to electronic versions of Russian newspapers. In this regard, the doubts of experts and market participants about the correctness of the policy of replacing printed publications in our country with their paid digital copies are quite justified. With rare exceptions, online projects in Russia, as in other developing countries, can only be considered as an auxiliary resource.

The patient is more alive than dead

Despite rapidly changing realities, print newspapers continue to be the main source of information for people around the world. According to the World Newspaper and News Association (WAN-IFRA), more than half of the adult population of the planet reads newspapers daily, with 2.5 billion people doing it in paper format, and more than 600 million in digital format. The Internet, no matter how rapidly it grows the audience cannot yet boast of such impressive performance. According to A. Oskin, a person prefers comfortable reading, and not just the speed of information consumption. Moreover, even the increase in the number of readers of newspapers on the Internet from 34% in 2010. up to 40% in 2011 has not yet become a sustainable source of income for publications. Therefore, it is still premature to talk about the "death" of printed newspapers, while exposing the Internet as the main executioner.

However, no one will deny the objective trends of the age of new technologies, which put before the press tests that were previously unknown to it. North America and Western Europe are typical examples. WAN-IFRA Vice President Larry Kilman notes that the print media must continue their traditional role as providers of quality news and information to citizens in the future. But to meet this challenge, he says, newspapers need to start developing business models that can also function successfully in the digital age. Publications do not need to get rid of the printed format, but in a special way supplement it with new tools that allow the printed press to keep up with the times.

Yakov Grabar, RBC

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