Serious times call for serious publications

Gordon Brown began his speech to the Labour Party conference defending his serious approach to politics, “quite honestly there's a lot to be serious about,” he said. It seems that the public agrees. The latest figures of magazine sales show that titles such at the Economist (year-on-year rise of 5.6%), Prospect (+10.7%) and the Spectator are increasing their readership while lightweight titles such as Nuts (-9.8%), FHM (-10%) and Closer (-7.5%) are shedding readers.

John Micklethwait, the editor of the Economist, told media Guardian this week that: “There's a bigger top end of the market than people think, and it's not just to do with magazines. If you look at the number of people going to art galleries, or buying relatively serious books, or watching serious television - like House, or Tess of the D'Urbervilles - something is up. What seems to be happening is twofold: a massive thirst for ideas and insight, and another thing that's more sociological.

“I think that the world used to bifurcate between people who took things very seriously and watched East German films and wore black polonecks, and another group of people who went in for mass popular culture: football matches, say, and light entertainment on TV. That's all changing now. Not so long ago, I met someone who was going to a Millwall game, and then going to see The Lives of Others in the evening. And there was nothing odd about that at all.”

The sales numbers, however, are yet to be reflected in the figures of broadsheet papers, which continue to fall. What Micklethwait failed to mention was that people maybe turning to publications such as his because they don’t just want to know what’s going on. They also want to know why it’s happening, how it will impact on their lives and what they can do to cope. They don’t want news; they want analysis.

The twenty-four hour news cycle doesn’t lend itself to in-depth analysis and it’s a difficult balancing act for an editor as to how much comment and analysis to use. One answer maybe for newspapers to become more like magazines, with the latest news appearing online, where it can be updated throughout the day, and analysis appearing in the printed paper. It is already rumored that the Independent on Sunday maybe considering such a move, they have little to lose but other papers may soon be saying the same.

Brown was right, there is a lot to be serious about. Not only for governments but also for newspapers. The latest sales figures could provide them with a way out but change doesn’t come easily.