Editors and reporters at the NSK weekly media-industry paper “Shinbun Kyokai-Ho” (The NSK Journal) have issued a 2011 outlook summary for the Japanese newspaper industry:

Management

The prolonged business downturn and spending cuts will be among the most serious challenges facing newspaper firms this year. They will also face challenges in developing novel public appeals to attract new advertisers and subscribers. On matters related to production, newspaper firms continue to focus on introducing advanced editorial systems that should add value to content in various, diverse ways. Collaboration among newspaper firms in print-facility sharing is likely to grow on the heels of several recent successful printing tie-ups.

Advertising

Newspaper companies are aiming to solicit advertisers interested in connecting with social networking media. On the other hand, local newspapers are looking toward expanding their community-oriented sales.

In the March-July period of 2010, newspaper advertising far exceeded that for the same period in the previous year, fueling optimism that the worst period in newspaper advertising had finally ended. However, newspaper firms will need to continue to watch business trends and to develop creative new tools for promoting newspaper advertising as a continuing good investment for corporate clients.

Circulation

The government’s new school curriculum guidelines for elementary schools will go into full force by April. Newspaper firms are zeroing in on that date to convince parents into subscribing to newspapers to help educate their children.

Production

As newspaper firms continue developing solutions for the distribution of their content to electronic devices, they are also concentrating their resources on building a new editorial system suited to multimedia, multi-format distribution. The Mainichi Shimbun will in September adopt a new content management system (CMS) that enables editors and reporters to simultaneously edit content for print and electronic media. Kyodo News is to introduce a similarly capable CMS by late November.

At the stage in newspaper-output, the need to maintain the current base of rotary printing presses is to be paired with plans for new technologies featuring so-called 4x1 newspaper presses and highly advanced image-rendering methods based on what is called amplitude modulation (AM) screening.

There is certain to be real growth in consignment-printing deals among many newspaper firms through the year-end. The Asahi Shimbun will consign its printing to the Kahoku Shimpo in Miyagi Prefecture and to the Niigata Nippo in Niigata Prefecture to address Asahi distribution needs in nearby areas. The Yomiuri Shimbun is teaming up for printing at the Kitanippon Shimbun in Toyama Prefecture. And the Asahi is working out a printing consignment deal with the Chunichi Shimbun in Aichi Prefecture. Even the Asahi Funabashi printing factory in Chiba Prefecture will start printing papers for its so-called archrival, the Yomiuri Shimbun, sometime in 2011, under the terms of a wide-ranging deal inked in 2008.

Electronic Media

Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and smartphones continue to grow in popularity, giving newspaper firms multiple new markets for the paid distribution of their masses of information. By fully assessing the capabilities, functions and other interface characteristics of the latest digital devices, newspaper companies will explore every new business opportunity for information distribution. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) began charging for a new subscription system that features parallel print and online versions. The Kitanippon Shimbun has limited access to what was previously a free news Web site, now allowing access to only its paid subscribers to its print edition. There is a high likelihood that 2011 will be the crucial year in determining the commercial viability of a wholesale newspaper-industry move into digital content distribution.

As 2010 drew to a close, there was a flood of new high-performance multifunctional digital devices appearing on the Japanese market. Among them were Sharp Corp.’s e-book reader GARAPAGOS, Sony Corp.’s E-reader and the Samsung Galaxy smartphone offered to mobile phone users at NTT DoCoMo. Along with Apple Inc.’s iPad handheld device, which shook up the market a year ago, almost all of the most-publicized multifunction digital devices have now come out in Japan.

Given these new tools for media distribution and consumption, newspaper publishers will certainly find themselves facing off against many new content providers in fields including music, movies and games, as they all scramble to sell a bigger media offering to a public、whose spare time is limited.