The Independent, the populist and liberal daily newspaper which was founded exactly 30 years ago, has said 'goodbye' to the print. It was announced that the newspaper would be digital-only and the last printed edition included David Cameron's positive remarks on The Independent. Even though its circulation falling to the 40,000's was stated as the reason for this change, contrary to popular knowledge, The Independent has never reached the top 10 in the UK in terms of circulation. It is interesting that The Independent was at 40,000's while The Sun and The Daily Mail are pushing figures around two million. I would also like to point out that The Guardian, which is among the best in the world in many fields, has failed to reach a circulation of 200,000 even with its legendary editor Alan Rusbridger. Which is interesting because from my point of view, The Independent and The Guardian are the two best British newspapers in terms of global recognition and prestige.
When we take a look at the last five years, the order of circulation stays the same. With everything starting to become digital-only and the media failing to resist this trend no matter how hard it tries, the newspaper circulation in the UK is falling sharply just like in any other country. Of course there is one newspaper which sees a raise in its circulation as a result of being free, the London Evening Standard, which is the only newspaper in the island that managed to successfully raise its circulation. I should also point out that the senior partner of this newspaper is Evgeny Lebedev, who also owns The Independent for which I'm writing this article.
Since I live in Turkey, I can't read a printed edition of The Independent but nevertheless, it saddens me a bit to see it become digital-only. However, it is definitely good news because as a journalist I also think that the digital editions have surpassed the printed ones. With this brave decision, we will see how The Independent made the right choice in a few years.
Just like the editor of the paper Amol Rajan has said, 'The Independent isn't shutting, but switching
instead.'
Good Luck!