Five years ago, without pomp and circumstance, the family Lebedev’s mini newspaper empire tried something new. They put out a thin, cheap (20p) daily some bright subeditors had carved from the maw of the full-blown Independent. Many critics were neither shaken nor stirred. This new i offering had no voice of its own. It was a quick trick to shore up the flagship Indy’s advertising take. It would be sunk soon enough by price increases or sheer lack of salience, a flimsy bridge too far. But, baby, look at it now.
The i can charge more: 40p not 20p, a cash injection bringing the entire Indy enterprise closer to break-even – but its ABC circulation, at 277,498 copies a day in September, shows no sign of collapsing (and indeed, at only 3.25% down on September 2014, appears pretty resilient). Oliver Duff and a 12-strong team can produce a brisk, polished 56-page paper start to finish: your “essential daily briefing”, they say. And the fascinating thing is that, today, this isn’t so much a bridge too far as a series of bridges to the future.
There wasn’t entirely manifest faith in that future when the Society of Editors met last week. The struggles of declining revenues and circulation weigh heavy. Digital revolution without matching digital revenue means demolition, not transition. But in small ways, there are answers – potential i answers – to lighten the gloom.
Take growth in print. The i, far, far beyond the M25, has lately found it in Scotland, with 18,000 or so sales that match the Times and Telegraph totals there. Take an increasing tendency to order exclusive material, not cannibalise the Indy. Then take what’s happening now and what happens next.
One of the greatest proven experts on print-paper demise I know – a renowned digital operator – sees time (not flickering screens) as the ultimate enemy. In a digital world, through the working week, we all lack time. That’s time to watch TV, spend hours on mobiles, read email, time to Snapchat and Twitter and Facebook, ask What’s App. So, Monday to Friday, print papers have to get their words in edgeways. So, at their old fighting weight, they get crowded out. Blame digital? Blame the clock, ticking.
Perhaps then, a swifter, pared-down i can do better? It would seem so if you study through-the-week circulation patterns. Competitors in the quality and middle market score between 60% and 100% more sales on Saturday than Monday to Friday. The i on Saturday comes in 24,000 or so below its weekday score. That’s the precise reverse of full-service dailies. In short, it shows where a briefing approach can fit. And down transition road, one common assumption is that sometime soon – in the wake of some US cities – dailies will turn into fat print weekend editions with weekdays left to online. Perhaps. Or perhaps there’ll be swifter, cheaper print papers filling that gap from Monday to Friday.
The i could be an outrider, then: a glimpse of things to come. Maybe its success depends on lack of competition. Maybe a frantic market would crowd it out. Maybe a bad idea (Jeremy Hunt’s expensive, toilsome London TV franchise) will be truly lethal for the Lebedevs. But meanwhile it’s churlish not to salute the birthday of something innovative, instructive – and still happening.
