A sign posted outside SPAR, Baggot Street on Sunday read: ‘We would like to inform you that due to low customer purchasing and a high account fee we are no longer in a position to stock newspapers in our store. If the situation changes, we will be back to you.’
These graphs by ilevel.ie show the decline of newspaper sales in Ireland from January 2009 to January 2022.
In July of this year, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) noted that the largest decreases in the volume of sales in June 2022 when compared with February 2020 levels were for newspapers, bars, books, and stationery and fuel.
The cost of paper itself has also “swollen unpleasantly since last autumn”, according to the Irish Times, with the first half of 2022 bringing with it an “unprecedented” increase in newsprint costs.
The Irish news publishing industry has drawn attention to these “historic highs” for newsprint prices in its pre-budget submission, in which it reiterates its call for both printed and digital newspapers to be zero-rated for VAT.
The rising cost of energy has also been cited as an attributing factor, as it effects the actual printing and distributing of papers.
