Now, smart phones penetrate newspaper circulation

A vendor at the Water Board junction in Barnawa, an area in Kaduna, Ikechukwu Oscar, said some readers now prefer to read news online since more people have access to the internet, especially via the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). According to him, newspaper readers find it cheaper and convenient to read online, saying […]

A vendor at the Water Board junction in Barnawa, an area in Kaduna, Ikechukwu Oscar, said some readers now prefer to read news online since more people have access to the internet, especially via the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).

According to him, newspaper readers find it cheaper and convenient to read online, saying that if the cost of reading online is higher than that of buying the hard copy, they will patronize the newsstand. He advised newspaper publishers to place charges on each page of newspapers online so that it will enable readers return to the newsstand.

“Before the introduction of online publications, I sold at least 150 copies of newspapers daily, but now I hardly sell 120 copies in a day because readers can get everything online. Even for the sports paper that sells for N40, people don’t rush to buy any longer. They read it online. In fact, I am beginning to have a rethink because if the sales continue like this, I may have to change my line of business to sales of jerseys.”

“If they cannot charge online readers, the newspaper publishers should help us by ensuring that only the headline and probably the first paragraph of every story appears online so that people would be left with no option than to buy newspapers if they must get the details of every story,” he appealed.

In the same vein, another vendor at Jos road in Kaduna metropolis, Isa Suleiman, lamented that the handsets sold now with internet facilities are making their work difficult because before anything happens, it would have circulated round especially on the Blackberry.

“By the time newspapers carry the news the following day, only few people bother to read it because they have had the details of the incident including pictures the previous day even ahead of the newspaper.

Before now, I hardly have unsold. In fact, I used to sell all and people will even be asking for more. But now, I used to have unsold copies.

To an old vendor along Muhammadu Buhari Way, Baba Musa, the country is only following the trend of technological advancement in the world, but he argued that if it is possible for the online publication to be scrapped, he would like it. “The best thing for vendors is that the online publication should be stopped, but if there is no way out, there is nothing we can do than to blend and also follow the trend,” he said.

Some readers also sympathize with vendors, saying online publication have come as a form of advantage to readers, but a disadvantage to the vendors.

A newspaper reader at Jos road in Kaduna, Mr. Aramide Lanre stressed that the issue is simply that the country is now in a technologically advanced stage, stating everyone needs to follow the trend. “In as much as some things will be an advantage to some people, it will be to some others’ disadvantage. The issue now is that they should make the news on the newspapers more qualitative and detailed so that people will still patronize the newsstand,” he said.

“At least, these people are feeding from the sales of newspapers. If there are forms of advantages of the newspaper over the online edition, people will still prefer the hard copy of the newspaper,” he added.

Mr. Matthew Babalola, a reader in Kaduna also said “Since the introduction of online publications, I stopped buying newspapers because I bookmarked all newspapers on my phone and with just less than N50 on my phone, I can connect to the internet and read the dailies. So online is a blessing to we younger generation because we don’t have to spend much to know what is happening around the world,” he said.

The senior marketing executive of Daily Trust newspaper in Kaduna, Mallam Yusuf Jidda said that the effect of online publications on sales is mostly with the younger generation who spend significant part of their lives on the internet.

“Breaking news is even available on facebook and on newspaper websites, so the issue is that some young people no longer buy newspapers except they are in need a specific information which they cannot find on the internet. It is mostly the older generation that is not complying with the technology because most of them buy for archival purpose,” he said.

According to him, the danger of placing newspapers on the internet is likely to be felt more in the next three to five years because presently, the younger generation focuses mainly on the electronic aspect of newspapers while only the few old people who archive newspapers still buy, so as the older ones pass on, much more emphasis will be on online and might cause the hard copy of newspaper to begin to face out.

“The online edition of newspaper may not really tell on the sales of our newspaper because in Daily Trust, there has been increase in sales in the last five years, which is as a result of marketing expansion and the brand name which is waxing stronger in the market. Our sales daily has improved,” he stressed.

Apart from the online publication affecting sales, he pointed out that as things continue to go electronically, less manpower would be required to market the papers, thereby causing redundancy or creating unemployment as a result of retrenchment.

“There are some newspapers online that are not free. Before a reader can gain access to any of the pages, he/she has to buy a scratch card which expires monthly. So, if charges can be attached to online edition, it will make more people return to the newsstand and once again boost sales,” he advised.

In his own view, the bureau chief of The SUN Newspaper in Kaduna, Mr. Ismail Omipidan, said that while it is true that readers can read virtually all news item online, he noted that there are certain specialized pages that are not usually published online. “To that extent, if readers don’t go through the hard copy, they are likely to miss those pages. Even if it is true that most people prefer now to read newspapers online via phones and computers among others,” he said.

According to him, a time will come when publishers will pace certain restrictions on accessing publications online and that way they can maximize profit by paying a token.