Analysis on the competition of Nanjing newspaper i

Through the smoke of gunpowder stained with ink -- Analysis of the competition of Nanjing newspaper industry

in the past year, the newspaper market in Nanjing has been bleak and volatile in the surprisingly low price. After half a year, it was found that although the price of "Modern Express" rose to 20 cents a share, and the price of other newspapers also mostly returned to the level of 20 or 30 cents, the phenomenon of newspaper price discount still exists, and even the situation of buying one for one free has not been eliminated. In the evening, buying "Yangzi Evening News" can send "Morning Post" or "Modern Express". It seems that the smoke of gunpowder does not completely constitute the manufacturing of cars, parts and high-end equipment The characteristic industries dominated by high-end electronic information and high-tech service industries are scattered. There are still media events that may break out one day in the incessant cries of newspaper vendors

1. Competition situation:

on May 9, 1999, Jiangsu business daily sounded the clarion call of Jiangsu business daily, which was rewarded at a glance. It was grandly launched at the lowest price of Nanjing newspapers at that time, entering the Nanjing Morning Post market, and thus lit the fuse of the Nanjing newspaper war. Four months later, that is, in September, the Jiangnan market news hosted by the market news subordinate to the people was renamed Jiangnan times, with eight opposite editions. It was also a clarion call to follow up the Jiangsu times, officially opening the prelude to the price war. The price war has just started. Less than a month later, the modern economic news under the Jiangsu Branch of Xinhua News Agency expanded its edition and changed its name to modern express. The 16 page newspaper was published for only a dime. Even though the price of the newspaper was at a record low, it achieved little, with a circulation of 60000 copies. Two months later, on December 8, Xinhua's "daily bridge" not only grew up, but also the newspaper market appeared in the form of color printing newspapers. What's more, it not only paid a dime per copy, but also received a copy of "service guide" when buying "daily bridge". At the end of the year, Nanjing, the leader of the Nanjing market, could no longer sit still and also made a decision to buy Nanjing and send Jinling Evening News. If you order the 2000 "Jinling Evening News" alone, it is free. The 144 yuan subscription fee can be refunded in full or the equivalent value of milk, mineral water and other physical goods

for a time, Nanjing's TV, radio, street flyers, bus carriages have become the propaganda positions of various media, newspaper advertisements are overwhelming, and various newspapers compete on the newsstand. However, the newspapers whose prices have been reduced have not been respected by the citizens. The resources that should have been cherished have been too easy and excessive, and the wind of waste has begun to spread. In places of rest and entertainment, we often see discarded newspapers everywhere. Today's newspapers are not finished, and they are thrown away as garbage the next day. How to deal with the mountains of newspapers in student dormitories is a headache in the market, Newspapers act as cheap wrapping paper, and the price war has caused the disorder of the newspaper market. Newspapers that only strive for the market and have miscellaneous and coarse information make the value of resources ignored in the smoke of the price war, and cause a waste of resources such as paper, which will reduce the position of newspaper media in people's minds. Therefore, in February, 2000, the provincial workers' Association and some newspapers in Nanjing reached an agreement on adjusting the retail price of newspapers: from March 1, 2000, the minimum retail price of newspapers with 16 pages in four or 8 pages in two pages will be adjusted to 30 cents. At the same time, other disguised price reduction methods such as buy one get one free are not allowed in newspaper distribution or retail. In March, 2000, the retail price of "Modern Express" and "Jiangsu business daily" remained at 0.2 yuan per copy, indicating that the newspaper retail price agreement reached by various parties has been torn up, and the smoke of war once again permeated the Nanjing newspaper market. On February 21st, 2001, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Jiangsu Provincial Committee, the Jiangsu Provincial Publishing Bureau and the Jiangsu Provincial anti corruption Office jointly issued an urgent notice on Further Regulating newspaper prices in Nanjing. Since February 26, 2001, the minimum retail price of newspapers in Nanjing (4-page 16 or 8-page folio) is 0.30 yuan per copy; Since February 26, newspapers will no longer implement the disguised price reduction sales methods such as mutual tying and preferential remuneration; Violators will be given a warning, suspension of publication for rectification and other penalties according to the situation, and the leaders of the newspaper will be investigated. So far, the price war of Nanjing newspaper industry has been effectively curbed, and the newspaper market has been re standardized. This price war has re divided the newspaper market in Nanjing. In terms of circulation, the circulation of Modern Express has increased from the highest of more than 20000 copies of its predecessor, modern economic news, to more than 500000 copies today. Jiangsu Business Daily has also increased from thousands to 200000 copies today. The circulation of Jiangnan times has also stabilized at more than 30000 copies

"service guide", "daily bridge news" and "Jinling Evening News" have some losses. Even the Yangtze Evening News, which has always been the big brother in the Nanjing newspaper market, has also been hit, with a total circulation of nearly 30000 or 40000 copies. This price competition has brought a strong sense of crisis to the newspaper industry in Nanjing. All newspapers have improved their newspapers and refreshed their pages. The daily bridge changed its face from a black-and-white tabloid with 16 pages in four pages to a color tabloid with 8 pages in two; Yangzi Evening News has also been changed to Triassic, and the advertising area is more clearly separated from the district; "Service guide" has comprehensively updated the page, with a more unique perspective and fresh content. While opening up the market by low prices, new newspapers, without exception, have made great efforts in the quality of newspapers, showing their own characteristics. It is also a positive aspect that newspapers in Nanjing have improved their overall level in this war. However, the downstream construction site has not fully resumed work

second, reasons and essence

the newspaper price war broke out in Nanjing has attracted the attention of the industry and the media across the country. The deep-seated reasons behind this large-scale, long-term and involved in the price war of many newspapers can be summarized as follows: the closed market competition environment, Jiangsu is a major economic and cultural province, and Nanjing, as the provincial capital, has a radiating influence on six provinces and one city in East China. From the perspective of culture, diet and residents' consumption habits and characteristics, Nanjing has the characteristics of inclusiveness, which provides a living space for media with different characteristics. However, Shanghai, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, has a very standardized newspaper industry, with many newspapers with high-level and distinctive characteristics, and the newspaper market is increasingly consolidated and expanded. In addition, cities in the Yangtze River Delta, including many cities in southern and eastern Jiangsu, are close to Shanghai style culture and are not interested in Nanjing's newspaper publicity. This also makes the newspaper market in Nanjing shrink a lot, and it is difficult to avoid a big war to compete for a limited circulation in a limited market. The positioning of newspapers tends to be the same. In addition to Xinhua and Nanjing, which are mainly readers of government officials, decision-makers in various industries and intellectuals, evening newspapers, guides, business newspapers, overseas Chinese newspapers, express newspapers and times, although their names are different, most of their contents are aimed at urban citizens. Only clothing guides firmly grasp the reader group of urban fashionable youth. This positioning makes the newspapers quite replaceable, causing the audience to choose and eliminate ruthlessly. Therefore, when the total number of readers remains unchanged, the choice of readers forces newspapers to compete for readers, and the competition among homogeneous newspapers will inevitably be attributed to price competition. The main way to expand market share is to continuously expand the circulation of newspapers driven by advertising interests. Therefore, most modern newspapers adopt the method of low price and high turnover to seize the market share of newspapers, so as to compete for the advertising market. Although the distribution price of newspapers may cause losses, the increase in newspaper advertising revenue may make up for or even increase the total profit. Therefore, with the increasingly fierce competition in the newspaper market, most newspapers expand their circulation at the expense of profits or even losses. Under the domination of this idea, the price war in the newspaper industry is bound to intensify. The strength of running a newspaper can't keep up with the demand. Nanjing has multi-level citizen readers, plus many scientific research institutions and dozens of colleges and universities, whose cultural heritage is deep. People's suppressed information hunger under the old policy management and institutional constraints needs to be liberated. Most newspapers in Nanjing, due to the backward strength of running newspapers, are difficult to reach a higher level, so there are many newspapers for ordinary citizens, but few newspapers that mainly target urban white-collar workers with a considerable level of knowledge, and newspapers accepted by high-grade readers can occupy this part of the market more reliably. Although there are many newspapers in Nanjing, the coverage is narrow, and there are few outside the province and even abroad. This also lost this group of readers who pursue high quality and high taste. From the above analysis, we can see the essence of capital operation

YuGuoMing, director of the Institute of public opinion of Renmin University, believes that when similar capital is in a relatively limited market, it will carry out various forms of competition driven by profit margin, and the most commonly used capital competition is price competition. Proper price competition is an indispensable means in market competition. However, the price war of Nanjing newspaper industry has gone beyond the boundary of legitimate price competition. Some quotations are based on the premise that the newspaper office loses money below the cost price, which makes the enterprise bear a heavy debt burden, which will form a vicious circle. Although the price reduction competition now enables enterprises to have a considerable circulation and subsequent advertising revenue, it is very difficult to transform this short-term market into a long-term market. Does the price reduction war in Nanjing newspaper market include the factor that the reader market has been saturated? Yu Guoming pointed out that the newspaper industry in Nanjing has a very broad development prospect, but now it is far from reaching the scale and level, the newspaper running level is generally not high, and the positioning tends to be the same, that is, it has not found a differentiated business mode that can share the market with others. Under this premise, the market of similar audiences has reached saturation. However, the potential market needs to be developed, and multi-level readers need to release their long-term thirst for information. This is a broader market. On the whole, the current situation of Nanjing newspaper market reflects a relative surplus of resources or structural surplus, which needs to be solved by the improvement of newspaper running ability, the diversification of newspaper running means and the maturity of market operation rules

III. The development enlightenment and trend of Nanjing newspaper industry

we are in a new period of China's reform and opening up, and all undertakings are facing fierce market competition. The competition of Nanjing newspaper industry is the requirement and embodiment of the general climate in this historical period. The smoke of gunpowder has faded, but what we are left with is profound thinking. As an industry, what is the factor that guides its healthy development

first of all, quality is the key to the development of newspapers. In the competition, newspapers gradually realize that they must work hard on the quality of newspapers in order to gain a foothold in the fierce newspaper market in Nanjing. At the beginning of the price war of Nanjing newspaper industry, Yangtze Evening News, the giant of Nanjing newspaper industry, started with quality, adhered to the characteristics of the evening news, strengthened the same day, night and exclusivity, and successfully revised its edition. For more than a year, Yangzi Evening News has been reading the universal experimental motor pull