Asahi Shimbun’s Fight to Thrive in a Declining Print Market
Japan’s print decline is closely linked to the country’s shrinking population and the rise of internet use.Newspaper circulation has dropped 40 percent over the last decade, averaging a 4 percent decline per year.
yet, Tokyo-headquartered Asahi Shimbun, which is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, is fighting back with new subscriber acquisition strategies such as community events, distributor partnerships, and data-driven marketing.
“Print still makes up 65 percent of our company’s total revenue,” Takashi Kanari, Deputy Manager of Asahi Shimbun, said during our Indian Printers Summit in Delhi.The brand currently publishes and distributes more than 5.5 million copies across japan.
But over the past decade, digital growth has remained flat, generating only 10 percent of the total revenue.
“Our big challenge is to keep print while also growing digital,” Kanari said.
Stringent Cost Cutting measures
Falling circulation forced Asahi Shimbun to take significant cost-cutting measures. The company’s news bureaus were reduced from 321 to 178, and print facilities were cut from 32 to 24.
Around 12,000 employees were laid off as part of restructuring.Simultaneously occurring, the company optimized door-to-door delivery.
For decades, each of the country’s five major newspapers operated separate distribution networks. As sales declined, publishers began sharing their distribution network to cut costs on store expenses, transportation and labour.
Yet,competition does exist to choose a distributor with the biggest circulation in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka.
WAN-IFRA Members can download Takashi Kanari’s presentation slides on our knowledge Hub.
Leveraging Events to Gain New Customers
In the past, newspaper sales in Japan were mostly door-to-door with sales representatives visiting homes.
“But nowadays people don’t open the door.Newspaper salespeople got a reputation for pushing their product too aggressively,” Kanari said.
Hence, the company zeroed in on a new approach: event-based sales. In this model,the publisher sets up a booth at the event venue to enc
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