The Independent is an institution in decline, with fewer readers than ever.
As the tabloids look forward to the Royal Wedding and the fun they will have over the next few years with "is-she/isn't-she" stories, and even the Telegraph ponders weighty questions such as changing the rules of succession and whether Dave Cameron should wear tails, it may seem the wrong time to be discussing the future of the Independent.
Founded by Andreas Whittam Smith to enable his divorce from the Telegraph, and in direct defiance of Rupert Murdoch, it has always steered a careful via media between the liberalness of the Guardian and being in any way interesting.
But as the hardline liberal group increasingly flirts with the idea of joining the Guardinariate, while the middle classes become obsessed with the health scares of the Express and Mail, increasingly the Independent has nowhere to go. It has experimented with so-called "fresh expressions of journalism", such as its "compact" or "comic" size, but the figures speak for themselves. From a circulation of 400,000 in the 1980s, it fell below 200,000 at the Millennium. Despite blips when readership has improved, the circulation in 2010 was 183,000 - down 10% on the year. The number of stipendiary journalists has been cut over the years, as the paper has tried to adjust to this decline. And as long as it clings on to old-fashioned doctrines such as "Liberal Democracy", it is hard to see how it can move forward.
Will anyone miss the Independent when it closes?
Shouldn't think so.
It surprises me that it actually has 183,000 readers. The tabloid size was useful for tearing in half and hanging on a piece of string in the outside privy. Not much else.
ReplyDeleteShurely shome mishtake? The Church of England is more like the Guardian - left-leaning without wanting to leave the establishment, rooted to historic values and only partly convinced of the need to increase circulation, but occasionally has something quite important to say.
ReplyDeleteAnd the ordinariate? It must the Telegraph, the Vatican's new press arm in the UK.