20% Price Rise For Japan Times?

[Mulboyne]

A comment on the NBR Forums points out that The Japan Times is planning to increase its cover price from the current 150 yen to 180 yen from October 1st. For many years, the paper charged 160 yen but chose to match the 150 yen price of the Asahi/IHT combination when it first hit the streets. You can only assume that they believe the potential loss of sales will be less than 20% and so lead to overall higher revenues. I wonder whether demand really will prove to be so inelastic.

[GuyJean]

.. The Japan Times is planning to increase its cover price from the current 150 yen to 180 yen from October 1st...

Will their papers become 30 yen thicker?

GJ

[FG Lurker]

Does anyone actually read the Japan Times!?

I pick up the Yomiuri occasionally for lunchtime reading but I haven't bought a Japan Times for many years.

[Taro Toporific]

Does anyone actually read the Japan Times!?

I suspect that most of the Japan Times newstand sales are only for the job ads in the Monday edition. I've noticed that the formerly "built-in" sales for the Japan Times to Japanese libraries have dropped off and that Asahi/IHT now has captured that niche market. Bad times for all newspapers worldwide--worse times for the Japan Times...

[Kuang_Grade]

I'd be curious to see the split in circ between home delivery and single copy sales...It looks like the home delivery cost is only going up 20 yen to about 150 yen per issue or about a 15% bump up in price.

Depending on the market, single copy prices can a bit misleading at times, in the sense that price is more related trying to push people into home delivery rather to encourage single copy sales (which can be costly and wasteful to fulfill when compared to home delivery).

While an extreme example, in the US, the Wall St Journal recently upped the cover price from $1 to $1.50 but their single copy sales are pretty puny (less than 7% of total circ), and I suspect they'd be happier if they fell even further, given the cost and waste involved with supplying single copy issues to retail outlets. And this is not that long after they cut the size and coverage of the paper significantly. I'm sure they have also decided that their audience's interest in their product is relatively price inelastic as well, given the WSJ is somewhat niche product. But that said, last week I got subscription renewal form offering 2 years (plus free online access, which was something not previously bundled with a newspaper subscription, but only a reduced price offering only $49 a year for print subscribers) for $156, or as the marketing copy in the mailing boldly state is a savings of $959 over the newsstand price. This turns out to be about 25 cents an issue, which is even cheaper than the home delivery price of my local, mass audience, newspaper. Given Murdoch's purchase of the WSJ, as well as the overall cheapening of the product prior to Murdoch's purchase, I had been thinking of not renewing. But given the person delivering it is probably getting about 15-20 cents per issue, I think the best thing I can do to stick it to Murdoch is to renew for 2 years...I can't buy plain newsprint packing paper as cheaply as having the WSJ delivered to my doorstep.

[Doctor Stop]

Does anyone actually read the Japan Times!?

A lot of Japanese read it. Even more Japanese buy it and pretend to read it. I suspect that English newspapers in Japan do not rely on resident native English speakers as their readership base.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Sorry!

[Mulboyne]

Catoneinutica has already mentioned in this thread how Debito is calling for support for the Japan Times and how Japan Inc has bought Metropolis/Japan Today. Since that was in the NOVA thread, I thought I'd post this Japan Inc comment on their purchase here:

We thought we'd take this opportunity to lay out the case for the acquisition, and why in this day and age of the Internet, we think that paper and the Metropolis brand makes excellent business sense.

1. Metropolis is at the top of its game
Some firms specialize in buying distressed assets, but JIH is not one of them. We know from hard experience that success in Japan usually comes to the first movers in a market, so long as they execute properly. The <redacted> were definitely first with their classifieds-supported free paper, and the current size and gloss of the publication confirms its success commercially. JIH became interested in Metropolis because it is the real deal as a publishing business, with a consumer-friendly editorial team, trendy yet efficient design and production team, and highly effective sales team -- and of course it's a
great read.

Right now we estimate that there are about 20 weeklies and monthlies and 5-6 daily newspapers all vying for an English-language market of just 80,000 foreigners and perhaps another 100,000 or so Japanese wanting to read in English. With an audience that limited, even despite the high median income of the readers, most advertisers are not motivated to support any but the largest publications. Distribution volume is important and accordingly, Metropolis soaks up much of the ad spend in its segment.

2. Metropolis is Internet tolerant
In making the decision to buy Metropolis, people asked us, "Shouldn't you be investing in the Internet instead of paper?" It is true that there is a massive shift from physical to online media, and as a result many magazines -- including those in the English-language sector -- are suffering. However, Metropolis has a unique aspect which makes it likely to survive the Internet challenge. Essentially, as a weekly city guide, its function is to help people be entertained, whether by food, music, film, events, or even each other! As such, it is consumed by people on the move or about to be on the move. It is foldable, curlable, writable, and doesn't need a server, network connection, or batteries when it goes out with a reader. Thus it is an ideal information medium for the very physical environment of life, be it beer, snacks, groceries, bus seats, sweaty jackets, noisy friends, or noisy kids. While other magazines can be curled and written on, most require some serious concentration in a quiet place, and thus don't compete as well for the short attention span of today's wired generation.

3. Metropolis is a great brand
Years of high-quality, entertaining content have meant that people do not need to flick through a Metropolis copy to know whether they want to pick one up or not. The short, catchy stories and items are addictive, as a visit to any foreigner-frequented grocery store or entertainment venue will prove. Further, retailers know that Metropolis is popular with their patrons and trust the brand well enough to give up valuable display space to place a few copies. Indeed, if there is a complaint we've heard in relationship to the distribution, it is that Metropolis copies run out very quickly.

4. Metropolis is a keeper
Despite the pressures and trends, Metropolis has defied a number of economic downturns both in the Japanese economy and also in the local foreign one. Even during the dotcom bust of 2001-2003, when many expats were being returned home and there was blood on the streets, Metropolis continued to be successful. There is an interesting cyclical nature in the foreign consumer segment. Readers celebrate the good times at bars and restaurants, and fill the Sayonara sale pages with unshippable personal effects during the bad.

5. Metropolis has lots more potential
Perhaps the greatest appeal of Metropolis to us as business people is its potential for future growth. Yes, the magazine is at the top of its game in a crowded market, and increasing the print run substantially is unlikely to provide much more than an incremental amount of new business. However, the content is still very unique and has not yet been served to the much larger Japanese audience. If we can figure out how to do this without hurting the special flavor of Metropolis, it will create allow us to create a whole new genre in the mainstream free paper market.

So does this mean that JIH will be changing Metropolis to Japanese? Not at all. Rather, with the judicious use of new media (web, mobile, and events) we hope to create some interesting extensions of the brand and content into the Japanese youth market. And if for no other reason, we believe that we'll be noticed for the Personals, which are always entertaining. Fans of Metropolis fear not, we don't plan to mess with a winning formula.

Lastly, we've had to learn some new acronyms to be part of the Metropolis business and now know what "SWF" and "SJF" in the personals mean. But finding out what "GFE" stands for took a lot more work!

[Captain Japan]

I suspect that most of the Japan Times newstand sales are only for the job ads in the Monday edition. I've noticed that the formerly "built-in" sales for the Japan Times to Japanese libraries have dropped off and that Asahi/IHT now has captured that niche market. Bad times for all newspapers worldwide--worse times for the Japan Times...

Over the last 5 years or so the job ads in the Monday edition have been reduced substantially.

While I think Debito might be headed in the right direction with this, I also think some of his reasoning is a bit flawed. A lot of the content of the JT is very right-right. I don't think the publication of the pro-whaling books (as the JT has been doing) and the full-page ads that appear in the paper just prior to IWC meetings are a coincidence.

I tend to agree with Marvin - I just foresee suicide. I think they should have revamped the Web page and _cut_ the daily price.

[sublight]

-started picking up "asshole" pings from <redacted> after <redacted> began his bizarre, inexplicable crusade against Nick Baker. And by inexplicable, I mean regardless of the merits of Baker's case, something no one would pursue as doggedly and with such stalker-ish zeal as Devlin has - that is, unless palms were greased.

Wait a minute, he's crusading against Nick Baker? I remember back when the case first was in the news every flash ad on Japan Today was ranting about how Nick was being unfairly railroaded. What changed?

Metropolis has probably succeeded as well as it has because <redacted>'s such an attention-whore, but that doesn't make him any more pleasant to be around.

[Mulboyne]

I just read Debito's call to rally behind the Japan Times. I'd also like the paper to continue in some form but if the current owners can't understand how to make the paper work then subscribing isn't likely to make a blind bit of difference. Nifco's Ogasawara has always seemed to regard the title as a vanity project and perhaps is unwilling to countenance any major change in the business model. From the outside, it appears that the main objective for the paper is not to lose too much money. This means they take lots of short term decisions to generate revenue when sales start slipping and the losses expand - this new price rise looks like more of the same.

If Ogasawara cares about the Japan Times then he'll authorize a complete overhaul with his own money or sell the title to a more sympathetic owner for a knockdown price on the understanding that they will commit to new investment.

[Behan]

I went to Debito's blog to see what he said and came across a post on the JT from Fred Varcoe.
Too bad he was fired. Some of his articles were pretty funny.

I don't trust my fading memory too much, but didn't Antonio Ferreira have a beef with Devil-in', too? Maybe not. He seemed to have a beef with a lot of people, perhaps deservedly. But it was too bad his website disappeared. It made for some interesting reading from time to time.

[Mulboyne]

A lot of successful business people get accused of sharp practice in their early years. In many cases it comes down to not paying bills on time or at all. Starting a business is not that easy and many companies get into cashflow problems where they haven't been paid by customers but need to pay their own bills. One way to deal with this is to go bust and finish with the company. Some elect to do that but you rarely find them being talked about as successful businessmen because they obviously haven't succeeded. Another way to deal with it is to blag your way through hoping that you can keep enough in the kitty to pay the bills that matter while keeping everyone else holding on. To do this, you have to have enormous self belief and a good line in bullshit.

Most people don't set out not to pay their bills but if you want to keep your business afloat in a difficult time then you probably will end up making promises you can't keep and making enemies at the same time. I don't know the Ds but I do know they created a product people wanted and which wasn't there before. Perhaps they are evil but I'd need to know more than the stories put out by those who want to drag them down. <redacted>'s online persona, to judge from his Wikipedia tussle, is not particularly attractive but neither is Debito nursing a grudge over a few thousand yen. I don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who thinks he has been stiffed but then goes back for more.

[sublight]

I prefer to think that Debito&<redacted> are both intensely annoying twats. They occasionally do things that are useful or amusing, but I wouldn't care to have to spend my day working with either of them.