Two years after the tipping point, papers’ web readership is booming

As newspapers’ print circulation continues to decline, publishers now get the majority of their readers online. But what does that look like in practice?

Now we can firmly pinpoint the date at which the readership tipping point apparently occurred for these publishers – November 2010 (after a brief earlier overtake in January that year). Two years after the crossover, print circulation is declining at broadly the same rate it has for the last eight years. But web readership’s growth goes on accelerating. The industry’s dilemma is – publishers’ money has not reached the same crossover. All still get the vast majority of their money from that declining print base. To adjust, some like News International’s Times Newspapers are introducing more charges, whilst others like Guardian News & Media are seeking even more readers to bring in advertiser sales.