It is becoming a commonplace that the ‘tabloid wars’ between broadsheet titles are transforming the newspaper market. There is a widespread belief that in producing tabloid editions the Independent and, to a lesser extent, the Times have stolen a brilliant march on their rivals. The Guardian is accused of having fallen asleep on the job, and one excitable commentator has suggested that the paper is doomed. The Daily Telegraph is also thought by many to be fatally missing out on the revolution. As soon as it finds a new buyer, it is suggested, it must unveil the tabloid edition with whose prototype frustrated executives have been tinkering.
Such is the general view in what used to be called Fleet Street. In large measure it is what I thought myself until a few weeks ago. But there are reasons for believing that the existing quality tabloids may not be everything they are cracked up to be. I should at this stage declare an interest as someone who is attempting to raise the money to launch a very upmarket newspaper which has been described in the press as tabloid.
No one could deny that the Independent has had a considerable success in going tabloid. Its sales have increased by 11 per cent over the past 12 months. Simon Kelner, the paper’s editor, certainly deserves our praise. But the newspaper’s increase in circulation is flattening out. Before very long — not least because the cost of producing two editions is a heavy burden on a paper already losing a lot of money — the Independent may only be available in tabloid form. If that happens, it could lose some of the gains it has made for two reasons. There may be a few readers of the paper who are so addicted to the larger form that they will switch to another broadsheet rather than read a tabloid.
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