Newspapers have always had to fight harder for female attention than for men. Wherever you look across Europe the story is the same. It's a phenomenon that has recently been addressed by a number of publishers - with varying degrees of success.
The individual markets may differ in the scale of the problem but the picture is repeated. Newspapers in all European markets find it increasingly difficult to win new women readers and they are finding it tougher to hang on to the women readers they already have.
In Italy, for instance, according to research by Zenith Media Italia, female readership of newspapers, already low, has fallen from 32.3 per cent of the total just four years ago to less than 30 per cent today.
And the loss can be directly attributed to the demise in the crucial mid-aged readers - the 35- to 54-year-olds - that has fallen most dramatically.
And this despite the fact that all the main titles, La Repubblica, La Stampa and Il Messaggero chief among them, now publish dedicated women's weekly sections or standalone supplements.
'Even the introduction of female magazines by most of the leading titles has not caused any increase in female readership,' confirms the Zenith media director Pietro Rossi.
In Germany, media planners trying to reach a discrete female audience are increasingly turning to the free papers, whose profile of women readers is significantly higher even than the relatively high 53 per cent claimed by female friendly titles like the Berliner Kurier or the BZ. The downside is that the age profile of free newspaper readers is significantly higher than those of the paid-for titles.
'Where newspapers have been relatively more successful at attracting women readers is either in countries like Germany, where the regional news culture is strong and there is a strong tradition of women newspaper readership,' explains Nick Mawditt, international director at Initiative Media Futures, 'or else in markets where there has not been a strong tradition in women's magazines. Scandinavia is the classic case here. The fact is that most newspaper supplements aimed at women aren't as good as the magazines, and that is part of the reason they are finding it so difficult to attract readers.
'Women are much more subtle and sophisticated consumers of media than men in many regards. Sport and news are fantastic vehicles for attracting a male audience, but women are more discerning because they have to be.
Typically they are juggling more things in their life than men and have less time to read. That's why they are attracted to the sorts of media - like glossy magazines and TV - which are more of a leisure consumption.'
But individual newspapers have not accepted overall decline in female readership as an inevitability and have instead adopted an impressive range of tactics and techniques to strike back, as their own individual experiences and opportunities dictate.
Take Sweden for example. One of the more successful attempts to target women readers has come from the Swedish daily Aftenbladet, which launched a women's supplement called Kvinna back in 1992 and has worked hard to see this grow to become one of the most important of its kind in Europe.
It now claims over 800,000 weekly readers and has increased its circulation by more than 10,000 in its first full year of operation.
'The section has a vision,' explains its editor Monica Gunne, 'which is nothing less than to make Sweden a better place for women to live in.
When we launched we were making an important political point and making sure women were represented, but we have grown to be more than just a token women's section.'
There are now daily Kvinna pages in the newspaper and a dedicated section of the Aftenbladet website, which attracts more than 300,000 women a month for a mixture of daily news, discussion groups and links to other web services dedicated to women, such as women.com.
The story is mixed in France. Aside from listings magazines the French press has fared worse than other markets at launching any successful supplements - let alone the complicated and editorially sophisticated additions that might be able to attract a discerning female readership.
The decision of the high-profile daily Liberation to launch a Saturday magazine with a feminine emphasis in 1994 was an ignominious failure, lasting just five months, while France's best-known title, Le Monde, has never dared launch a supplement. Although significant inroads have been made, largely through the efforts of the newspaper and magazine publishers Hersant and Hachette.
Hersant, which publishes the conservative daily Le Figaro and the tabloid evening title France Soir, brought out the women's lifestyle and fashion glossy Madame Figaro in 1980. It quickly became the most successful newspaper supplement in France and is now regarded more as a standalone magazine than a supplement - by both readers and advertisers. It claims audited circulations comfortably in excess of half a million compared to the daily average of around 320,000 recorded by the newspaper itself.
This long-term success has been shared more recently by the women's weekly magazine, Femina Hebdo, launched by the Hachette publishing giant three years ago. The title was first distributed as a supplement in the daily La Provence and the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche and then two years ago its distribution was increased to take in other important regional dailies such as L'Alsace, La Montagne and the Courier Picard. Hachette says readership of the title now tops two million and believes the magazine could ultimately go on to distribute as many as the TV listings guides and compete for advertising expenditure with a fragmenting TV marketplace.
In the UK the drive to target female readers, long led by the Daily Mail, has seen fresh initiatives this year from other papers.
The sectional approach pioneered by the Daily Mail has long been copied by other UK titles, but the competition from another quarter has now intensified.
The Mirror introduced a 44-page weekly glossy magazine called M last year, backed by an impressive pounds 1.5 million TV campaign and designed to take the fight for women's readership, and specifically younger women's readership, to the mid-market. 'It's so difficult in the UK because of the strength of the women's magazine market, but this looks like a pretty successful offering by the Mirror,' says Initiative's Mawditt.
The Financial Times relaunched its glossy female-oriented monthly title , How To Spend It, last year, with a new softer design and a new editor, Gillian de Bono, whose background included stints in women's magazines.
In addition, more How To Spend It pages were incorporated into the daily paper during the week, focusing on traditionally female interest subjects like fashion, cooking and jewellery.
The more popular route than an expensive new product launch has been to appeal to women readers through the same sort of price-led promotions long favoured by the glossy women's mags themselves. The Telegraph launched a six-month promotion in July this year aimed at 25- to 45-year-old women.
This 'more for me' campaign offered discounts on skincare, travel, fashion, interiors and beauty products in exactly the same fashion as conventional consumer magazines.
According to the paper's marketing director Mark Dixon: 'Offering good discounts on established brands - and the Telegraph's promotion offers discounts of around 20 per cent - is the way forward for us. As opposed to the conventional promotions which were more appealing to male readers such as limited opportunities to win things.'
By extending the campaign over six months, readership retention levels have improved. The Telegraph currently has a 56 per cent male readership compared to a 58 per cent male readership in the previous year.
By contrast the Daily Mail, the UK paper traditionally marketed at women readers, has a readership split about equally between the sexes. Indeed the Daily Mail practically invented the idea of marketing to female readers.
The 70s ads with the famous 'Every woman needs her Daily Mail' did much to position the title as the favourite with women readers. Today 49 per cent of Daily Mail women readers have full or part-time jobs, but the slightly worrying thing is that the average age of Daily Mail women readers is now 50.
Executive managing editor Robin Esser told the last World Association of Newspapers meeting devoted to the subject of women newspaper readership that Associated actually dated the resurgence of the paper as a mid-market leader to its 70s decision to create an upmarket tabloid that targeted women.
'The idea,' he explained, 'was to create an up-market, tabloid-sized paper that targeted women, knowing all too well that, if they got it right, it would appeal to men as well. But the fact is that what the Daily Mail has done in attracting the female audience, more and more publishers will have to do, as the competition from other media - especially from the electronic ones - hots up.'
This is the great imponderable. In the United States, women are the fastest-growing group of internet users according to research by the website women.com.
In Europe, women already make up 40 per cent of internet users and are the fastest growing demographic group using the web. Newspapers haven't been slow to capitalise on the advantages the net offers in the race to target editorial more effectively, but for years the concern was that the on-line versions would cannibalise the printed paper. In fact, the best available evidence suggests that internet usage has a more direct effect on TV viewing than newspaper readership.
The major InternetTrak survey commissioned jointly by Yahoo!, Ziff Davies and Dell, suggested that although time spent watching TV decreases by up to 10 per cent when the internet is introduced into a media consumption pattern, time spent reading newspapers actually increases by 1 per cent.
Certainly the Daily Mail seems to have decided to hold firm to its strategy of following the female market online as well as in print. It has withdrawn from its male-oriented websites, such as soccernet, to concentrate on its two web projects aimed at women: the CharlotteStreet.com portal and the clothes e-tailer Zoom.co.uk.
'One of the key strengths of our group is its strong affinity with women and, in particular, women in the UK's middle market,' explains Martin Dunn, editor-in-chief of Associated New Media. One of the most successful newspaper publishers remains confident of its heritage. And it doesn't sound like it is prepared to give up on its strategy of focusing on its heartland of women readers - whether online or in the 'old' printed media.
NEWSPAPER READERSHIP: EUROPEAN MARKETS, WOMEN vs ALL ADULTS
FRANCE: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
Le Monde 896 2,030 44
Le Parisien 745 1,681 44
Journal du Dimanche 628 1,282 49
Le Figaro 594 1,380 43
L''Equipe 465 2,522 18
Liberation 389 954 41
France Soir 335 674 50
Les Echos 298 754 40
La Croix 178 320 56
La Tribune 157 468 34
GERMANY: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
Bild 4,580 11,330 40
Suddeutsche Zeitung 490 1,090 45
BZ 330 630 52
Frankfurter Allgemeine 320 830 39
Zeitung Express 300 700 43
Frankfurter Rundschau 210 480 44
Die Abendzeitung 200 410 49
Berliner Kurier 190 360 53
Die Welt 190 530 36
t z 120 250 48
ITALY: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
La Repubblica 1,051 2,681 39
La Stampa 674 1,673 40
Il Messaggero 551 1,426 39
Il Resto del Carlino 443 1,149 39
Il Sole 24 Ore 437 1,413 31
La Gazzetta dello Sport 371 3,359 11
Il Gazzettino 291 769 40
Il Giornale 287 839 38
Il Mattino 266 900 29
Corriere dello 255 1,760 15
Sport-Stadio
NETHERLANDS: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
De Telegraaf 987 2,277 43
Algemeen Dagblad 419 1,050 40
De Volkskrant 310 724 43
Dagblad De Limburger 187 412 45
NRC Handelsblad 177 451 39
De Twentse Courant 162 338 48
Tubantia Haagsche Courant 156 312 50
Eindhovens Dagblad 150 318 47
Leeuwarder Courant 137 270 51
Rotterdams Dagblad 119 276 43
SPAIN: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
El PaIs 597 1,499 40
ABC 362 873 42
Marca 352 2,376 15
El Mundo 320 907 35
El Periodico de Catalunya 289 765 38
El Correo Espanol 273 625 44
La Voz de Galicia 192 506 38
El Diario Vasco 155 338 46
Heraldo de Aragon 124 313 40
Levante 118 338 35
UK: Average Issue Readership 000s
Newspapers Women Adults Women %
Sun 4,026 9,603 42
Mirror 2,727 6,033 45
Daily Mail 2,669 5,493 49
Daily Express 1,101 2,437 45
Daily Telegraph 1,023 2,314 44
Times 722 1,699 43
Daily Record 779 1,671 47
Daily Star 395 1,372 29
Guardian 414 1,047 40
London Evening Standard 425 1,041 41
All Sources - National Readership Surveys 2000
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