The owner of the Daily Mail, the i and Metro said that print advertising revenues for its portfolio of titles plunged by 70% in April and May as the coronavirus lockdown hammered the newspaper industry.
Daily Mail & and General Trust, which also owns Mail Online and the Mail on Sunday, said that total revenues across its consumer media division were down by a third in April. In April, DMGT said circulation revenues fell by 17%, with total advertising revenue down 46% – with print ads down 69% and digital advertising falling 16%.
It fared little better in the first four weeks of this month, to 24 May, with total revenues down 30%. The decline in circulation revenues has improved to a 9% fall, with total advertising revenue down 45%. Print advertising remains down 70%, with digital advertising falling 17%.
Newspaper publishers have benefited from record digital audiences as readers crave news on the coronavirus. However, with businesses shut down and many advertisers keen to steer clear of running promotions around content relating to the pandemic, publishers have failed to reap the benefits of an ad boost.
DMGT said that it has been encouraged by print retail circulation volumes of the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday and the i increasing each week since 5 April. The freesheet Metro’s circulation is running at about a quarter of its usual levels as the nation remains on lockdown and its commuter readers stay at home.
“At this stage it is too early to assess the extent to which readership habits may permanently change once lockdown measures are lifted completely,” the company said. “The board remains confident, however, that high levels of reader engagement will help to support revenue recovery in time.”
Epidemics of infectious diseases behave in different ways but the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people is regarded as a key example of a pandemic that occurred in multiple waves, with the latter more severe than the first. It has been replicated – albeit more mildly – in subsequent flu pandemics.
How and why multiple-wave outbreaks occur, and how subsequent waves of infection can be prevented, has become a staple of epidemiological modelling studies and pandemic preparation, which have looked at everything from social behaviour and health policy to vaccination and the buildup of community immunity, also known as herd immunity.
Is there evidence of coronavirus coming back in a second wave?
This is being watched very carefully. Without a vaccine, and with no widespread immunity to the new disease, one alarm is being sounded by the experience of Singapore, which has seen a sudden resurgence in infections despite being lauded for its early handling of the outbreak.
Although Singapore instituted a strong contact tracing system for its general population, the disease re-emerged in cramped dormitory accommodation used by thousands of foreign workers with inadequate hygiene facilities and…
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