Amid print decline, Asahi Shimbun bets on events to boost subscriber acquisition

Japan's print decline is closely linked to the country's shrinking population and the rise of internet use. Newspaper circulation has dropped 40 percent over the last decade, averaging a 4 percent decline per year.

Yet, Tokyo-headquartered Asahi Shimbun, which is celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, is fighting back with new subscriber acquisition strategies such as community events, distributor partnerships, and data-driven marketing.

"Print still makes up 65 percent of our company's total revenue," Takashi Kanari, Deputy Manager, Asahi Shimbun said during our Indian Printers Summit in Delhi. The brand currently publishes and distributes more than 5.5 million copies across Japan.

But over the past decade, digital growth has remained flat, generating only 10 percent of the total revenue.

"Our big challenge is to keep print while also growing digital," Kanari said.

Stringent cost cutting measures

Falling circulation forced Asahi Shimbun to take significant cost-cutting measures. The company's news bureaus were reduced from 321 to 178, and print facilities were cut to 24 from 32.

Around 12,000 employees were laid off as part of restructuring. At the same time, the company optimised door-to-door delivery.

For decades, each of the country's five major newspapers operated separate distribution networks. As sales declined, publishers began sharing their distribution network to cut costs on store expenses, transportation and labour.

Yet, competition does exist to choose a distributor with the biggest circulation in major cities such as Tokyo and Osaka.

Leveraging events to gain new customers

In the past, newspaper sales in Japan were mostly door-to-door with sales representatives visiting homes.

"But nowadays people don't open the door. Newspaper salespeople got a reputation for pushing their product too aggressively," Kanari said.

Hence, the company zeroed in on a new approach: event-based sales. In this model, the publisher sets up a booth at the event venue to encourage direct sales.

Asahi Shimbun focuses on three types of events:

• Sports events

These events focus on inviting sports personalities to conduct workshops, training sessions, and contests, while using the venue to promote subscriptions. The guest's popularity serves as leverage to attract more participants. Publishers and distributors collaborate to run the events. "If we have 100 participants, we usually get 10-20 new subscriptions from an event," he said.

• Cultural events

Asahi Shimbun hosts a nationwide brass band contest for high school students every year. Winners and participants are featured in special editions of the newspaper, which is delivered to the students' families. This provides an opportunity to encourage subscriptions, as students often keep these editions as souvenirs.

• Newspaper in Education (NIE)

NIE is an event-based approach in which workshops are held for students and their parents to teach them how to read and use newspapers effectively. Experts or well-known educators are often invited to share practical strategies and tips for engaging children with newspapers, especially for university or entrance examinations.

Families who participate typically receive a free newspaper trial before the workshop, allowing them to get familiar with reading materials in advance. During the workshop, participants learn how to integrate newspapers into learning and daily life.

"The acquisition rate in this format is 20-30 percent, which is higher than sports events," Kanari said.

Fun fact: Articles from Asahi Shimbun are often used as source material for entrance exam questions, especially at the university level. In fact, Asahi Shimbun articles are used more than any other newspaper, accounting for around 40 percent of such questions, according to Kanari.

Role of distributors in driving subscriptions

"Whether it's through door-to-door sales or promotional events, distributors play a key role in selling newspapers," Kanari said.

"Our company and distributors always work together to reach readers," he added.

Print-only subscriptions cost 4,900 yen ($31.59) per month, with around 3.2 million subscribers. Of this fee, 2,900 yen ($18.69) goes to the newspaper company, and the remaining 2,000 yen is the distributor's profit.

"Customers who subscribe to both print and digital pay 5,400 yen ($34.81) per month; with 85,000 subscribers, they are our most important customers," he said.

To increase subscriptions, distributors are encouraged to convince print-only customers to add digital access.

Digital subscriptions work differently. Readers can subscribe directly online, with digital-only subscriptions costing 3,800 yen ($24.5) per month and limited-edition digital subscriptions priced between 980 and 1,980 yen ($6.32-$12.77).

Although digital subscriptions don't require distributors, the company still relies on them to grow digital readership. When a distributor brings in a digital subscriber, they receive a commission from the subscription fee, leveraging the distributors' strength in sales.

Asahi ID: Connecting customers to services and subscriptions

Asahi Shimbun offers a wide range of services and events, including insider talks with journalists, sports and cultural events, campaigns, and ticket sales.

To make these services easier to access, the publisher created Asahi ID, a single online login for event registration and service access.

"The ultimate goal, of course, is subscriptions. But first, we want people to experience our services, and get to know us. That's the role of Asahi ID," Kanari said.

Customer information is stored in a Customer Data Platform (CDP), which can analyse the data in multiple ways.

"We then provide a personalised database to distributors, who use it to promote subscriptions. For customers without a print subscription, distributors recommend the print version. For existing print subscribers, they suggest adding digital access. This is our standard approach to driving subscriptions through Asahi ID," he said.

Aultrin Vijay

[email protected]