What Comms Pros Can Learn From the Launch of a New US Paper in a Digital World
The first edition of the California Post this week shows that print is not dead, but plunging newspaper sales show where comms pros' focus has to be in the future.
The media landscape is changing at pace – and keeping up with the latest developments and moves will give every comms expert an advantage over their rivals. Every week we will take a look at the media business from mainstream and ‘legacy’ media to cutting edge tech and the latest trends and developments – and how you can use that know-how.
There’s been some surprising media news this week - a new newspaper has been launched!
The California Post, an offspring of the tabloid New York Post, hit the news stands on Monday in the hope of carving a niche for itself in what editor Keith Poole calls the “news desert” of the west coast state.
As an old dinosaur whose career has been very much cemented in print, I dearly hope it’s a success. There is something special about the detail of daily papers, the care and attention and effort that goes into them, the physical feel of holding a news print and appreciation of the curation of the news.
But I must admit I slightly fear the worst. I was on holiday in California not long ago and as an old hack wanted to get my hands on the local papers. Not an easy task when no corner shop, garage or store sells them any more. I tried in vain to get hold of a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle and only managed to get the LA Times when we spotted a temporary newsagent at the side of the road.
In tech savvy California, it’s hard to see a population that has grown out of the habit of buying papers (the LA Times 2024 circulation was just 78,000) suddenly being attracted to 20th century print. Particularly of the brash tabloid style. But let’s hope I’m wrong.
Paper launches in the UK have been few and far between. The New Day was launched by Trinity Mirror (now Reach) in 2016. It lasted for nine weeks. And in a previous life, I was part of the team that set up The Sportsman - a sports betting and horse racing paper that was taking on the Racing Post. It lasted about seven months before the funders pulled the plug (although it was a lot of fun!).
The launch of the Sportsman, which was a good idea badly executed, seemed like a stretch even in 2006. In hindsight, the biggest problem was our failure to have a working website with it.
Now all media companies can see the writing on the wall. Newspaper sales are declining inexorably. The latest newspaper sales figures for 2025 show drops of between 8% and 19.5% year-on-year for the biggest national papers. And even high-end products are seeing significant drops in paper sales (The Guardian sells around 50,000 a day, The Times around 130,000).
It pains me to say it, but it means that newspapers are becoming less important. Its buyers are loyal and engaged, but they are elderly and are not being replaced by a younger generation.
It’s an important point for comms experts to keep in mind.
