Mediahuis to phase out daily newspaper printing within 10 years 

Media group preparing for a purely digital future

Peter Vandermeersch: "For three centuries we read papers in print. I'm not worried about print disappearing. I would be worried about journalism disappearing."

Daily print editions of Mediahuis Ireland titles that include the Irish Independent newspaper will be phased out within the next decade, the company's CEO has said.

Peter Vandermeersch said the company, which also owns the Sunday Independent, Sunday World, Belfast Telegraph, The Kerryman, and other regional titles, is preparing for the transition from a hybrid model that combines digital and print titles to a purely digital future.

"We are preparing our company to be digital only during the week. We will probably print Saturday or Sunday or weekly products but during the week, print will disappear," Mr Vandermeersch said in an interview with RTÉs Justin McCarthy on the This Week programme, 

He was speaking following the company's announcement last week that it was seeking voluntary redundancies among its national and regional titles as the company prepared for its digital future.

Asked if print publications have a future, he said: "We sold our two printing plants. We don't own have a printing plant in Ireland anymore. That's quite a sign. It's not a strategic asset for our company to have a printing plant.

For three centuries we read papers in print. I'm not worried about print disappearing. I would be worried about journalism disappearing. 

"As long as journalism is there I am a very happy executive."

Mediahuis currently has 70,000 digital subscribers across the range of its titles in Ireland and is targeting 100,000 subscribers by 2025, a figure Mr Vandermeersch said was probably not ambitious enough. 

"If we want to replace the hundreds of thousands buying a paper we have to go to 200,000 to 250,000 subscribers, that is more or less the number we want to get to in the next five to seven years."

Mr Vandermeersch said he was most worried about the future of regional newspapers. 

I'm most worried about the local papers because the scale is smaller.

" The Kerryman is selling somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000 copies while the Independent on a Saturday is selling 100,000 copies. It's clear the future of local papers is in danger. That's why in Mediahuis, we have to do what we do in Belgium. That local journalism is found on national websites. On the website of the Indo, there you will find news about Kerry, of Dingle, Greystones, wherever."

He said the media industry across the world made the mistake of giving away journalistic content for free. 

"In our sector, we called it the original sin. Somewhere between 2000 to 2005, we all started to fight for eyeballs. We have to reach, reach, reach. We forgot we have something very valuable to give," he said.

"When I first arrived to Ireland and I saw the Independent is selling its journalism for €2 or €3 a day and giving that same journalism online for free I thought why do we do this? That's why we installed a paywall. We should realise we have something that is valuable and think people are willing to pay for."

Questioned by Mr McCarthy, Mr Vandermeersch said the model whereby RTÉ is subsidised by the taxpayer while carrying advertising and then giving content away for free is unfair.

"Every market Mediahuis is in, we are in six markets and everywhere we are fighting or in conflict with the RTÉs of these markets. We want a level playing field and think it is not very fair that RTÉ gets subsidies and gets a part of the advertising market and gives the journalism away for free and we have to do the same behind a paywall."