Nikkei Inc., the publisher of the major business daily the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, has made a major organizational realignment in the field of advertising by converting the advertising departments at its Tokyo and Osaka head offices into cross-media sales departments.

Responding to a decline in ad revenues, the change is aimed at boosting sales activities by combining various media forms including the Internet, print publications, broadcasting and special events to boost ad revenues.

On Jan. 1, the advertising sections at Nikkei’s Tokyo head office were re-designated as the 1st Cross-Media Sales Department, the 2nd Cross-Media Sales Department and the Cross-Media Administrative Headquarters.

According to Nikkei officials, they divided their advertising department into two sales departments in the aim of prodding the chiefs of the two departments to work out “high-maneuverability solutions”.

As the entire advertising market continues shrinking rapidly, the company carried out major organizational changes at the start of this year to cope with problems “as quickly as possible,” the officials said.

Some regional newspapers have made very similar moves aimed at boosting ad revenues in collaboration with online media and events. For example, the Sankei Shimbun set up a New Business Division and a Digital Network Development Division in the Media Development Headquarters of its Advertising Department in April 2008. As of August 2008, the Nishinippon Shimbun created an Integrated Media Headquarters that oversees its Circulation, Advertising and Project Promotion Divisions. The Mainichi Shimbun set up a Cross-Media Division in its Advertising Department in October 2008.

Okinawa Times, Ryukyu Shimpo Discontinuing Evening Editions

The Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo, two major daily newspapers in Okinawa Prefecture, have announced that they will be ending their production of evening editions as of the end of February.

The Okinawa Times will terminate publication of its evening edition and publish only its morning edition, starting on March 1. The morning edition will be revamped to incorporate some of the more popular contents of the evening edition, such as its sections on entertainment and movies. The page count of the morning edition will be increased by two pages. The monthly subscription fee will be lowered to 2,990 yen from the current fee of 3,160 yen for a “set” of morning and evening editions.

In its official announcement, the company explained that the economic climate has been deteriorating to the extent of threatening the continued publication of the newspaper. Specifically, it referred to a steep drop in demand for newspaper advertising and a rise in the price of newsprint paper that has caused a substantial increase in the costs of production.

“We have decided to discontinue publication of the evening edition as an unavoidable choice in order to avoid any increase in readers’ financial burdens due to a prospective hike in the subscription fee,” the announcement said. The company will upgrade its capacity to deliver breaking news via its news Web site and to report news through services connecting to mobile phones in order to make up for the discontinuation of its evening edition, officials said.

The Okinawa Times said the circulation of the set of its morning and evening editions stood at 198,343 copies each as of October 2008.

The Ryukyu Shimpo will discontinue its evening edition and switch to publishing of only its morning edition from March. Part of the contents from the evening edition will be incorporated into the morning paper, which will see an increase in its page count. The monthly subscription fee will be cut to 2,990 yen from the current 3,160 yen charged for the set of morning and evening editions.

According to the Audit Board of Circulation (ABC), the newspaper’s circulation for its set of morning and evening editions was about 205,000 copies each as of November 2008.

Since Nov. 1, 2008, the Ryukyu Shimpo has been printing on consignment some 7,000 copies of each of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun’s morning and evening editions distributed in Okinawa Prefecture. The company said that it will continue its consignment printing of the Nikkei editions.

Japan’s general-interest newspapers have traditionally published and delivered a set of morning and evening editions. However, an increasing number of newspapers have discontinued their evening editions due to increases in production costs and declines in ad revenues.