publishing news

The Leinster Leader, an Irish provincial newspaper owned by failing British company The Johnston Press, has announced the publication of an online edition of itself, available for the nifty price of 75 Euros per year.

Thrilling, no!

A copy of the Leinster Leader in the shops presently costs 114 Euros over the course of a year.

The new online edition gives you the same product over the same time period for about 40 Euros less.

Ah.

Dear oh dear.

Here's what I think.

The effect of this new online edition will not be to expand Leinster Leader sales, as the geniuses at the Johnston Press believe.

The effect of the new online edition will in fact be to collapse further the already collapsing figures for copies sold in the shops.

Not because people will change over and buy the online edition, mind you.

But because people will ask themselves why the hell are we paying 114 Euros down the shops for something the Johnston Press can't give away for 75 Euros over the internet.

Let me be clear.

The online edition will not sell but it will undermine the already plummeting sales figures in the shops.

Back in my days at the Leinster Leader, we watched while idiot newspapers (ie The Irish Times and Independent Newspapers) lost hundreds of millions of dollars setting up online editions which the public never paid to buy.

Back in my days, we at the Leinster Leader were creaming the internet.

We cleaned their clocks.

I'm telling you folks, the internet had to struggle to compete with us.

And then they fired me.

And the wheels came off the wagon.

Ha, ha, ha.

Seriously though.

They're doing a brilliant job.