Innovate to survive

That often asked question are newspapers in terminal decline is answered by Peter Preston in today's Observer as he replies to Emily Bell's apocolyptic vision of earlier in the week.

Reminding us that five years ago the Independent started a trend amongst the tabloids in shrinking and which they all followed apart from the Telegraph,Preston reads something into comparing the sales figures of the four qaulities over the five years.

can you totally put aside the thought that the one daily that didn't shape down has endured the biggest losses in headline and full-price terms - and that the first two quality tabloids in the ring are both recording higher ABC sales than they were five years ago?

he asks

Whilst saying that

A Times drop of under 20,000 in five years isn't systemic collapse. A Guardian surge online that brings in more than 23 million unique users a month on top of a million-plus print readers isn't carnage.