Production

Print newspaper production globally in 2007, according to WAN, involved more than 350 135 journalists off a total staff compliment of just over 1.21-million

employees (excluding Africa). However, due to cyclical economic movements, the figures change from time to time as is currently the case in the United States where print newspaper publishers in 2008 reduced staff members due to poor economic conditions affecting publishers.

According to Blyth (2008), up to 4 000 editorial staff in about 250 newspapers titles in the US in 2008 were directly affected by the situation, and the numbers were expected to grow.

(ii) Printing Presses

Print media across the globe continues to rely on traditional Printing Presses – usually massive machines housed in separate standalone factory-type buildings - for actual physical transformation of what are now electronic tablets of newspapers into actual newspaper products ready for the market. Some media companies, such as Rupert Murdoch‟s News Corporation, the New York Times and hundreds of others; either have they own printing presses or utilize services of independent printing press companies.

The reliance of print newspapers on printing presses for publication of newspapers has over the centuries led to growth of highly vertically integrated media companies whose operations included newspaper development (editorial), production (printing press) and distribution (transport).

Essentially, these are three distinct business operations with barely any relation to one another except for the heavy interdependence that has been developed over the years.

According to WAN (2007), print media houses in 2007 had lined up additional capital investments worth over US$6-billion dollars, a substantial amount of which was earmarked for new printing and production technologies including more colour, headset and gloss capabilities, more flexible printing options (sizes

and formats), enhanced newsprint utilisation as well as reduction in distribution, staffing and waste management efficiencies.

The most recent of these capital investments was that by UK based News International, the publishers of The Daily and Sunday Telegraph. The group in 2007 built three news printing plants in Broxbourne, Glasgow and Merseyside involving an investment worth more than £600m.

In addition, News Limited in Australia (News Limited: 2009) invested A$52 million in a printing plant in Townsville that will not only print the Townsville Bulletin regional newspaper, but the regional editions of other papers, too. In the US, the New York Daily News in 2008 also investment some $100 million in new colour presses while in Turkey, the Dogan Group which publishes titles that include Hürriyet, Milliyet, Posta, Radikal, Referans and Fanatik, with a combined daily

circulation of 2.25-million copies; also announced a major upgrade investment in its printing facilities in Istanbul.

(iii) Newsprint

In addition to printing presses, print newspaper production relies heavily on newsprint – a specialised type of paper on which a newspaper is printed - with some media industry analysts estimating that the input product accounts for up to 20 percent of a legacy newspaper's overall costs. In some parts of the world, including South Africa; print media companies have individually or as groups also invested directly or indirectly in paper producing companies such as Mondi and Sappi in order to ensure regular supplies of material.

Avusa (previously at Times Media Limited under the control of Omni Media) had direct access to newsprint producer Mondi through cross shareholding via parent company of both companies, Anglo American Corporation (McGregor; 1999).

The online Environment News Service (2008) states that over the last decade, investment of over US$40-billion has been poured into pulp mill projects, with an

additional US$54-billion expected to be made in the period to 2015, much of it in Brazil, China, Indonesia, Uruguay, and the Baltic States, aimed at increasing capacity in the developing world in order to meet growing global demand for paper.

This was occurring against a background of where according to WAN (2007), newsprint costs per ton were rapidly increasing, averaging between US$214 per ton in Brazil and US$2200 per ton in East Timor at the end of 2006.

By 2008, prices had rocketed by as much as US$60 to $620 per metric ton in the US, an issue which, according to the Wall Street Journal (2008) raised yet another hurdle for newspaper publishers grappling with declining circulation and advertising revenue. In other parts of the world, according to WAN (2008), newspaper publishers were just as affected.

The organisation reports that publishing houses across Vietnam had to raise cover prices or reduce the number of copies they print in 2008 due to a sharp increase in paper prices and printing fees, after paper and printing costs rose to between 25 percent and 30 percent of publishing costs. Average costs per ton of newsprint for the different regions at the end of 2007 were $591 in Europe, $810 in Australasia and Oceania, $780 in Asia, $523 in South America, $590 in North America and $706 in Africa (WAN 2008).

2.2.2.6 Distribution: (Transportation)

Production of print newspapers is never complete until the copy is in the hands of readers, and due to the physical nature of the product, the diversely dispersed location of readers, the network of operators within the distribution system, and the time by which the product must reach readers, it is important for newspaper publishers to have a reliable and efficient system of transportation, and for the last 400 years since establishment of the print newspaper; publishers have relied almost solely on road, rail and air transport to achieve this goal.

Rhen (2001) states that because the newspaper distribution process is a heavily involved one – invariably requiring a complete separate business operation, sometimes with totally independent operators - it is a major expense for the total newspaper, making up approximately 20 percent of the total cost.

According to Rhen (2001: 5), the process of newspaper transportation to the market begins always with the loading dock, which is where the bundles [of newspapers] are transported to conveyer belts from the mailroom of the printing press.

Thereafter, the distribution either starts with transportation, which is carried out by a truck driver, or a carrier, which has a specific carrier route with a specific number of readers. After the transportation process, the copies can be distributed to a distribution centre, directly to a carrier or to another truck driver for further transportation.

The above process may vary slightly or radically depending on the prevailing conditions of individual printing presses – inclusive of copy delivery strategy in terms of split between home delivery and street sales - but the basic architecture is virtually the same worldwide, whether or not print newspaper companies own printing presses and distribution operations or rely on independent operators.

According to WAN (2007), delivery costs for print newspaper publishers across the world varied according to the mode of delivery, with home deliveries costing up to 70 percent of newspaper cover price in, for example; Mexico, while in the rest of Europe where modes of delivery are evenly split between street sales and home delivery, the delivery cost averaged 35 percent of newspaper cover price.

WAN reports that in France, publishers were expected to pay even more in 2008 after an agreement with unions and government in that country for newspapers to be delivered through the country‟s post network in terms of a new distribution plan for 2009 to 2015. According to WAN in terms of the deal, the French

government would support the delivery deal through a subsidy worth 242-million euros until 2011.