Page 49 - Newspaper of the Future Teaching Guide

Relative Market Share

The only measure that seems to be heading upward is cover price. This
is the “harvesting” approach being played out at The Scotsman, Scotland
on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News. As Professor Philip Meyer,
author of The Vanishing Newspaper, explained, it is a strategy that seeks
to maximize short-term revenues from a troubled product until the market
dictates it is no longer commercially viable. While the news, sports,
business and comment sections get ever thinner and editorial budgets
shrink, the cover price of The Scotsman was increased from £1 to £1.10
in October, a hike of 29 per cent from the 85 pence it cost less than a year
previously.