Pajamas Media has a great write-up of the success British Newspapers have had in attracting US audiences:

http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/11/british_press_invasion.php

I think it is a great reminder of what a vibrant and exciting news market exists in the UK. One of the key differences that wasn’t brought out in the article, however, is that the UK newspaper market is a national market whereas the main newspapers in US tend to be regional (with the exception of USA Today and to a lesser extent The New York Times). US newspapers tend to be dominant in their city which results in a lack of competition and vibrancy.

UK newspapers would however love to have the US newspapers’ profit margins. In the UK broadsheet papers, the Telegraph is barely profitable, the Times rarely makes a profit, the Independent has never (to my knowledge) made a profit and the Guardian doesn’t even try! (Amusingly, the Guardian’s official position is ‘profit seeking’). Also it should be noted that the biggest (by a country mile) news site in the UK is the BBC (which is entirely funded by tax-payers and therefore I guess could be described as ‘tax seeking’).

One thing that surprised me was how poorly Time is doing (especially when they are basically giving it away for free to subscribers). Nearly all the UK news and current affairs magazines (The Week, Economist, Spectator, New Statesman, Private Eye etc) are doing well at the moment. Part of that is due to them putting together great products (The Economist, Private Eye and the Spectator are all excellent). However I also think there is a structural change going on. My own hyposisis is that as people get more and more of their daily news online, they are giving up on their daily paper but they still want a print news digest therefore they are moving to the weekly magazines. Not sure why that isn’t the same in the US.

A quick analysis of UK newspapers from Yes Prime Minister (re-shown here for those of you that don’t click through):

Nigel

Popularity: 6% [?]

Tags: Interesting stuff, newspapers

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