Sweden is not as famous as Britain and the United States, but its newspaper diversity and thousand people ownership rate are the highest in the world. How to keep the diversity of newspapers coexisting? How to provide people with more kinds of newspapers to choose from in the fierce market competition? Sweden chose the newspaper subsidy policy.

Diversified coexistence: the present situation of Swedish newspaper market

Sweden is not only northern Europe, but also one of the most developed regions in the world. According to the latest statistical results in 2007, the current newspaper market structure in Sweden is generally composed of the following three types of newspapers:

1. Daily newspaper, including city morning paper, city evening paper and local newspapers.

The daily newspaper here is not published every day, but refers to a newspaper published 4-7 times a week. Sweden has more than 12 daily newspapers per million people, which is three times the European average. But at the same time, the circulation of Swedish daily is very low, with an average of only 22,200 copies. Newspapers are mainly distributed in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo. These three cities mainly publish daily newspapers published every seven weeks, while other local newspapers mostly publish on Saturdays. In addition to local editions, newspapers in the above three cities also publish national editions in an attempt to attract readers with national political, economic and cultural reports. However, due to their lack of local color, they can't attract more readers and compete with real local newspapers. Outside the three major cities, there are only five newspapers with a circulation of over 50,000.

According to the latest information released in 2007, Swedish daily (4-7 issues a week) mostly pays attention to local affairs in its content. Of the 82 daily newspapers, only 14 are published daily. There is no separate Sunday newspaper. Swedish daily has 489 copies per 1,000 people, ranking second in the European Union after Finland.

According to the local penetration rate of newspapers, Swedish daily newspapers can be roughly divided into low coverage daily newspapers and high coverage daily newspapers. Low coverage daily newspapers can be divided into high-cycle newspapers and low-cycle newspapers. The former can be divided into metropolitan newspapers and provincial newspapers, while the latter can be divided into national newspapers and local newspapers. According to the survey, the coverage of newspapers must reach at least 50% of local families in order to make a profit.

Second, free newspapers.

A free newspaper refers to a newspaper that readers can get without paying. Mainly rely on advertising revenue to attract well-educated young readers with certain economic strength. Represented by Metropolis Daily, which was founded in 1995, the board is a four-page tabloid, published six days a week, with an average of 55 pages a day, and has nearly 165438+ million readers in Sweden. In fact, such a newspaper appeared in Sweden in the 1930s, but Free Press was published once a week. During the period of 1995, the earliest free newspapers were published, such as Metropolis Daily, but most of them were published more than five times a week.

The emergence of free newspapers has a great impact on daily newspapers-mainly the division of advertising share. Because the readers targeted by free newspapers are the readers that advertisers value, and the influence of newspapers is huge, advertisers will turn from traditional daily newspapers to free newspapers. In 2004, Metropolis Daily published a national edition, which was distributed free of charge in 30 central areas of other provinces. At the same time, special issues of real estate in Stockholm and other places have been published, and the amount of real estate advertisements in daily newspapers in these areas has also declined.

Three, weekly (published once a week).

Weekly newspapers are both regional and national. 197 1 year, there are 15 weekly newspapers in Sweden. Since then, the number of weekly newspapers has been growing steadily, with 1985 reaching 50, and maintained a steady growth momentum.

Fourth, publish newspapers 2-3 times a week.

There are about 20 such newspapers in Sweden. Its average circulation is about 8000 copies.

Weekly newspapers are mostly newspapers published by specific organizations to promote their political views, mainly by subscription. The circulation of such newspapers is very small, accounting for only110 of the total circulation of all newspapers. Many weekly newspapers were formerly called daily newspapers. Due to low circulation or limited by local economic conditions, these daily newspapers are unsustainable, so they are transformed into weekly newspapers.

The predecessors of these weekly newspapers include the daily newspapers of the three major political parties in Sweden: the Central Party, the Socialist Party and the Labour Party. The circulation of these various newspapers ranges from 20 million to 400 thousand, but they all survive in the market and influence people to varying degrees. The reason why a hundred flowers blossom is inseparable from the Swedish government's newspaper funding system.

Newspaper Subsidy System and Its Contents

First, the emergence of the newspaper subsidy system.

In 1950s, the structure of Japanese newspapers in Sweden changed greatly due to the soaring paper price and the declining advertising revenue, and newspapers with small circulation in many areas (usually the third or fourth circulation in the local area) were forced to close down. Swedes believe that in the information society, daily newspapers are the central media in people's daily lives. Therefore, in 1963, the Swedish Press Committee put forward to the government through investigation that the overall funding for the newspaper industry can not prevent the newspaper from further closing down, which will only strengthen market competition and thus promote the elimination process of the newspaper industry. The government should give selective subsidies to newspapers that are in a weak position in the competition process to ensure the diversity of newspapers. However, the report did not put forward specific methods on how to allocate funds. The second investigation report puts forward methods that are beneficial to low coverage newspapers. First of all, newspapers with high coverage should share their door-to-door distribution network with other newspapers, including newspapers with low coverage. This makes it impossible for newspapers with low coverage to build this network on their own to overcome the main obstacles to entering the market. Second, the report suggests setting up a government fund to provide loans to newspapers that are in a weak position in the competition to help them improve their technical equipment, that is, product support. Finally, in 197 1, the selective newspaper funding system was implemented.

Second, the content of the newspaper subsidy system

Sweden's selective product support policy is the first and only government fund system based on competition theory in Europe. According to the relevant system in Sweden, newspapers must meet the following conditions in order to receive state funding:

1. Only newspapers or publications similar to newspapers that provide news and have a certain publishing cycle can get product support, but if the contents of newspapers are mainly limited to a limited area of interest or a unique part of society, they cannot get funding. For example, newspapers that focus on private enterprises and commerce, consumer policy, environmental issues, sports, etc. Not within the scope of funding.

2. The newspaper must be published 1 issue every week.

Newspapers must be written mainly in Swedish and distributed mainly in Sweden.

4. The total circulation of newspapers should be no less than 2,000 copies, excluding retail newspapers and free newspapers.

5. At least 5 1% of newspaper editorials are unique. For a low-cycle newspaper, its unique editorial content should reach at least 1000 column meters every year on average, and for a metropolis newspaper, it should reach at least 30,000 column meters.

In addition, in order to obtain product support, the coverage rate of high-cycle low-coverage newspapers should not be higher than 40%, and that of low-cycle low-coverage newspapers should be lower than 40%. If the coverage rate is between 40% and 50%, the subsidy funds provided by the government will be reduced by 110 for every increase of1percentage point.

Third, the role of the government in the newspaper subsidy system.

In the newspaper subsidy system, the government plays an important role, which not only ensures the perfection of the whole subsidy system, but also ensures the freedom of newspapers to use subsidy funds. The government's actions are well understood, and the various provisions of the newspaper subsidy system are its performance. The government's inaction is mainly reflected in the following aspects: the government does not undertake the commercial responsibility of protecting newspaper behavior, does not give any advice on choosing the appropriate production mode and sales mode in typesetting and printing, and does not interfere with the composition and quantity of editorial departments. Do not affect the content of the newspaper in any way. At the same time, newspaper operators have the freedom to take corresponding measures according to market changes. In the newspaper subsidy system, in addition to measures to encourage cooperative distribution and loan funds conducive to investment, the government also has a form of control-that is, the control of competitive prices. According to the subsidy standard, the subscription price of low coverage newspapers cannot be much lower than that of other similar newspapers in the market. In other words, subsidy funds cannot be used to lower prices. In this way, vicious price competition can be curbed.

Market Effect of Newspaper Subsidy System

First, the diversity of newspaper types.

Since the 1950s, a large number of Swedish tabloids have closed down, leading to the decline of newspapers and the rapid decline of newspaper types. Since 197 1 officially implemented the newspaper subsidy system, not only the decline of the newspaper industry has been effectively controlled, but also the total number of daily newspapers has increased, from 9 197 1 to 94 1. From 1984 to 1986, it reached its peak-as high as 10 1. Although there are many gaps compared with 139 in 1949, on the whole, under the newspaper subsidy system, the whole daily newspaper industry is developing steadily and healthily.

Since the implementation of the newspaper subsidy system, the variety of newspapers has been very mild as a whole, and there is no longer a lot of depression in the 1950s. Due to the existence of the newspaper subsidy system, many newspapers with weak market competitiveness have survived in the fierce market competition. In fact, on average, 265,438+0% of the income of all funded newspapers comes from the national newspaper funding system.

Two, promote the competition between low coverage newspapers and high coverage newspapers.

The implementation of the newspaper subsidy system has not only stabilized the types of newspapers, but also promoted the competition between tabloids and major newspapers. Although there is a big gap between the second-rate newspapers and the newspapers with the largest circulation in a certain region, the existence of low coverage newspapers is still a potential threat because of the support of the newspaper subsidy system, so major newspapers sometimes dare not underestimate these tabloids. Especially if the high coverage newspapers make mistakes in business decisions, the low coverage newspapers can take advantage of this to quickly improve their position in the market, and even become the largest local newspaper with the largest circulation. In this way, the competition in the newspaper market will be more intense. To illustrate this point, let's take stersund's case as an example.

When 197 1 implemented the newspaper subsidy system, Ostsund Post, the first newspaper in Ostsund, boasted that its subscribers had covered 83% of the families in Ostsund, while the subscribers of the second newspaper, Lnstidningen, were 2 1% of the families. Judging from the number of subscriptions, there is almost no competition between the two, and the second-ranked Lnstidningen is just struggling to maintain. According to the newspaper funding system, Lnstidningen received product funding. But then, due to some operational mistakes of Ostersund Post, the situation reversed and Ostersund Post was acquired. Subsequently, in order to cope with the economic losses caused by the decline in circulation, the new owner of Ostsund Post adopted the method of abolishing the low price of newspapers-in 1975, the subscription price rose by 30%, and in the next three years, the average annual increase was 15%. However, this is tantamount to adding insult to injury to an already difficult situation. Readers are further lost to Lnstidningen, and its subscribers are increasing day by day. From 65438 to 0982, Lnstidningen became the largest newspaper in Ostersund, so it no longer enjoyed the newspaper subsidy policy. However, since 199 1, the subscription volume of Lnstidningen has gradually declined for various reasons, and ostersund Post has regained readers by appointing new management and become the first newspaper of ostersund again. In 2006, Lnstidningen was again funded by the newspaper funding system.

At some point, there is competition between low coverage newspapers and high coverage newspapers, and this competition can sometimes even reverse the local newspaper pattern. Even when there is a big gap between the two and the competitive pressure is not too great, because of the existence of newspaper subsidy system, low coverage newspapers can survive, and high coverage newspapers are afraid to some extent and become promoters of market vitality.

Third, reduce the barriers to entering the newspaper market.

In Sweden, the main obstacles to entering the newspaper market are:

1. Advertising is the most important source of income for newspapers.

Therefore, for a newly established newspaper, it is necessary to attract local readers quickly, so as to attract the attention of advertisers. In this regard, product support can provide funds for new newspapers that are at a competitive disadvantage and those with low coverage that lack advertising revenue.

2. For low coverage newspapers and new newspapers, due to the lack of their own distribution network, newspaper distribution will be the biggest difficulty. Through the newspaper subsidy system, a joint distribution discount system has been implemented, that is, low-coverage newspapers and new newspapers can borrow the distribution network of big newspapers, thus eliminating the biggest obstacle to entering the newspaper industry. At present, the distribution ratio of Swedish newspapers is as follows: cooperative distribution accounts for 70%, post office distribution accounts for 20%, and individual distribution accounts for 10%.

3. A new newspaper needs a long-term promotion process and high survival cost, which requires the investment of venture capital.

In this regard, newspaper loans will be of great significance.

4. Support the operation of low coverage newspapers.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, newspaper funds accounted for 6% of the total newspaper revenue. Subsequently, this proportion began to decline, dropping to 3.5% in the early 1990s, further dropping to 2.9% in 1995 and 2.7% in 2005. Perhaps this ratio is insignificant to the whole newspaper industry, but due to the selective funding policy, it has a great impact on those newspapers that receive funding. On average, among the profits of all subsidized newspapers, the funds supported by products account for 2 1% of their profits. As far as the amount of product subsidies for low coverage metropolitan newspapers is concerned, each funded newspaper receives an average of 65.4 million Swedish kronor. Different types of low coverage newspapers receive different amounts of product funding.

Generally speaking, newspaper subsidy system, especially product support, occupies a very important position in the income of low coverage newspapers.