--- title: Turning the page on print description: The day we have long anticipated is here --- [![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) [![logo (3)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(3).svg)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/) - [Home](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/en-gb/) - [Advisory](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/advisory) - [121 Consulting](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/121-consulting) - [Content Review](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contentreview) - [Testimonials](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/testimonial) - [Contact](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/contact-us) # Turning the page on print [Alan Hunter](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/author/alan-hunter) 27 February 2026 6 min read **The day we have long anticipated is here** My dad is what you would call a newspaper loyalist. He is 80 years old and has been reading The Times for more than 60 years. When we lived in America in the mid-1970s he would go to the university library to read the previous day’s edition cover to cover (excluding sport). When the paper did not publish for almost a year in 1978-79 because of a dispute between management and the printers, he refused to read another paper. The other day I went round to my parents’ house and asked if I could take the sports section of The Sunday Times – even when I worked for it, he didn’t read it. He said: “Sorry, we stopped getting print at the start of the month.” He still reads The Times and its Sunday sister title every day, but on its apps, tablet (his preference) and smartphone. If ever there was a canary in a coalmine for print, this is it. If 80-somethings are forsaking it for digital, then we are really in the end game that we have long talked about but never wanted to admit was here. This feeling was heightened when I read [an article in Press Gazette](https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/nationals/reach-print-circulation-abc-sales-mirror-express-star/) about how almost every newspaper in the UK was now refusing to disclose publicly how many print copies they were selling. Charlotte Tobitt, the piece’s author, calculated what the circulation for papers would be based on the last date they disclosed them and assuming they were declining at the rate of the wider industry. The figures were staggering. The Sun, which sold 4m copies a day at its peak, is estimated to be down to 550,000 a day. The Telegraph, once a proud million-seller and which last reported 318,000 sales in December 2019, would be at 150,000; The Times at 140,000, compared with 365,000 in March 2020; The Sunday Times at 260,000 from 647,000. The Guardian, which last reported 105,000 in July 2021, is thought to be around 60,000 sales now. I should emphasise that these are just estimates, albeit very plausible ones, but the direction of travel is clear and vertiginously steep. The steady declines of the past have become a cliff edge. We have to imagine a lot of these titles will switch off print in the next five or so years. (I recognise that different markets are following different trajectories but they will all get to the same place eventually.) So what should publishers do in these circumstances? Here’s my brief checklist: Accept the inevitable – I’ve known editors who were afraid of “damaging print” by giving it less attention in order to favour digital. Those days are gone. Accept that print can’t be injured any further because it’s already in palliative care. Don’t be afraid to say so, either. Minimise your ongoing investment in print – ask yourself, “what’s the smallest number of people I can have producing this product?” And make that your starting point: prepare to cut that number even further by exploring automated layout tools. Size your newsroom for digital – first question: can I support the number of journalists I have with digital-only revenue? If the answer is yes (and for an increasing number of newsrooms it is), great. If no, then it’s better to face that brutal truth now, rather than in three years’ time. Just ask the Washington Post. Focus on distinctiveness – in every market in which we have consulted we have seen the same thing: originality and exclusivity are the nearest thing to a magic wand for digital news. Preserve it, protect it, cultivate it in your newsroom by not spreading your reporting energy too thin, by retaining your key reporters and columnists, by looking at the data for other areas of expertise. Accelerate other revenues – everyone has been talking about how the New York Times is “now a games company with a news operation attached”. That’s glib – by my back-of-the-envelope calculations their news operation would still be profitable on its own. Just not as profitable and consequently less secure. Every news organisation should be exploring other revenue streams and now is the time to double down on them while you have some, but not much, time. Hope that helps. Have a great weekend, Alan ## Next blog post ## [We have the ideas – show us some action](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/we-have-the-ideas-show-us-some-action) [Read more](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/media-hunter/we-have-the-ideas-show-us-some-action) ![logo (2)](https://www.hbmadvisory.com/hubfs/Assets%20HBM%20Theme/Images/logo%20(2).svg) Hunter Brunt Media Ltd. 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