Folha de São Paulo is Brazil’s first newspaper to have digital surpass print circulation
According to IVC (Brazil’s Audit Bureau of Circulations), in August its digital edition reached more than half of the total copies published. Of the 316,500 daily average copies in the month, 116,100 or 51% were for the digital edition of the newspaper, compared to 154,700 (49%) of the printed one.
Digital consumption growth within the main Brazilian newspapers circulation is a trend extending to all the main publishers, such as “O Globo” whose digital circulation reached 48%, “Estado de São Paulo” (39%) and “Zero Hora” (36%) during the period of August.
Murilo Bussab, Folha de São Paulo circulation and marketing director, says that these figures were expected by the middle of this year. “It’s natural in the world we live in. People are more connected and the internet speed as well as the lower cost makes it easy to obtain digital information.”
He adds: “We now have over 160,000 paying digital readers, compared to five years ago when the number was zero. The challenge now is to convert a larger share of the total 20 million site visitors into paying subscribers”.
He adds that until the introduction of the newspaper’s flexible metered “paywall” in January 2012, “no one paid to read” digitally. With the “paywall free access “ readers are limited to a certain number of free articles per month. At the moment a reader a reader limited to ten articles before being required to subscribe.
“For almost twenty years of Folha de São Paulo being online, like most publishers globally, access had been free. There is a cultural change that needs to continue, and will take some time. The “paywall” system is the most advance so far,” however, he did not mention what the next steps would be.
Bussab mentions that the printed edition still has its place in the marketplace and there is a segment of readers, and it has some advantages like a more enjoyable experience compared to reading digital screens or portability — qualities that helped stabilized the book market between print and electronic.
He adds that “the secret, the goal, the aim” now is to convince a larger share of the 20 million Folha de São Paulo digital readers to somehow pay for the journalistic work.
According to IVC president Pedro Silva, “the digital edition began ten years ago, and at the time, due to the access was only made available by computer and the connection speed was slower, therefore limiting subscription adoption”.
The situation began to change about five years ago when “paywalls” were introduced and the numbers grew to double figures. This change is a natural result of newspapers responding to consumer changes, said Silva.
The Internet has made that the different means of communication have to adapt to new forms of “ information delivery”, such as the recent smartphone growth.
No breakdown information of digital circulation by devices was provided, however another institute survey, regarding newspaper audiences, shows that in August, most of the visits came from smartphones (57%), with computers (desktops, notebooks) accounting for 39%.
Silva who is also the President of IFABC (The International Federation of Audit Bureaux of Certification), says it is not possible to compare percentages at this time on per country basis, because at this stage, different metrics are being used in different countries. “We have talked about it in the Federation, trying to understand what the differences are when we present consolidated global data”.
He goes on to explain that according to the IVC rules, every digital subscriber is equivalent to a printed subscription. When the subscription is a combination of print and digital, digital can count, as long as the bundle discount is not so high, he adds. Concluding the subscriber needs to have a paid digital subscription for to counted as a valid subscription.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
Billy D. Aldea-Martinez, is a Digital Monetization Strategy consultant and exclusively works with Latin America’s largest media groups.
He Heads up Latin America and Brazil for Piano, the world’s leader in metering and paywall solutions for digital content monetization and media user data analysis.
He also serves as Board Advisor & Angel Investor for adtech & martech startups, helping them to launch into new markets across the Americas.
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