The British Newspaper Industry The Future of the Regional Press

It is never very obvious to spectators of the newspaper business just why it is that the industry has suffered so badly in recent years. Most ascribe the reasons to the arrival of the Internet in all its forms when, in truth, most of its problems were created by the newspaper managements themselves, either by weak management in the control of its environment, by a serious lack of foresight in looking to the future, or by assuming that change, if it were to come, would be at the slow pace of past change. The magisterial attitudes of most newspaper managements served to engender a growing resentment particularly among the advertisers who were forced to pay increased rates to enable the cover prices of the publications to be held down. The British Newspaper Industry sets out to distinguish the newspaper industry from the generality of single product organisations and to provide tailored solutions to its problems by drawing on a variety of techniques and practices successfully used in other industries.

John Hill has worked in newspapers in Kenya, Kuwait, Ireland and the United Kingdom. He has an MBA and a PhD and has either written or contributed to nine academic papers or books.

Introduction
1. What Explains the Persistence of a Local Press?
2. Communities and their Media
3. Communities – What They Are!
4. The History of a Crisis - Internal Factors
5. The History of a Crisis - External Factors
6. The Present State of Play
7. Newspapers in Decline
8. The Growth of Alternative Media
9. Anticipating the Future
10. Transitioning to a New Order
11. Generic Strategies
12. Strategies for a Turbulent Future
13. Mechanisms of Local Media
14. Newspaper Production
15. Digital Printing
16. Marketing Advertising Space
17. Marketing the Product
18. Resource Partitioning
19. Value Activities
20. Measuring the Field
21. ...Endgame?