Making the business more cost-efficient, by methods ranging from a reduction in the number of pages, the number of copies, or the team, to renegotiating contracts, plus a more flexible advertising sales policy are the most accessible measures adopted by local publishers to counter the decline in revenues.
Inform Media, for example, cut the number of copies of free newspapers it publishes by 50 percent, for the summer, narrowed the team, offers higher discounts on advertisements than in previous years and focuses on local advertising clients.
On the other hand, a series of publishers, such as Publimedia, chose to shelve, temporarily or permanently, the printed editions of their publications, which will be found only online. According to the Managing Director of the EMI Romania subsidiary, Silviu Ispas, this recipe of transferring the business online has not had good results so far, as studies indicate that only some 10 percent of the readers remained loyal to the brand once it was transferred online.
Ispas added that partnerships, syndicating, are not a viable solution, as relations between Romanian players are not profound enough.
