The global financial crisis in Armenia, and the rest of the world for that matter, has impacted all sectors of society, including the print media. Expenses at printing houses have gone up and this has affected print runs. Advertising is also a big problem for the print media. Papers and magazines are experiencing a scarcity of advertising and this too has had its effect on the print media. The daily newspaper “Hraparak”, with a print run of 3,000, was launched in 2008. However, the crisis has not affected its print run. Chief Editor Armineh Ohanyan says that during the current crisis more papers are being sold than ever. “From a purely sales standpoint there hasn’t been much impact. However, there are problems related to printing costs, sponsors and advertising which seriously impact a paper’s viability. Before, we received an income stream from advertising and we also had sponsors. Today, advertisers are fewer and so is the number of sponsors. But our printing costs have increases. The price of the newspaper has remained the same even when prices in general started to go up some 7-10 years ago. The 100 dram price of the paper today isn’t realistic. If it were possible to raise the price without affecting circulation perhaps the impact of the crisis could be softened a bit. The truth is that we are wary of raising the price and losing readers. This affects our financial situation,” says Armineh Ohanyan. In her estimation, newspapers still do not exist in Armenia that can cover their costs merely through sales alone. “Hraparak” has come up with the following formula to withstand the crisis – the paper must improve its quality and content, it must reach a wider readership and paid circulation. “The print run hasn’t been cut back. The crisis hasn’t affected the print run or sales numbers. On the contrary, today sales are up in comparison to per-January figures. Nor have we cut back the staff. We are trying to hold on to our employees since each brings something special to the paper,” Armineh Ohanyan says. “Haykakan Zhamanak” newsstand sales down 10% The daily “Haykakan Zhamanak” has the largest print run in Armenia with 8,000 copies. Editions Editor Hayk Gevorgyan points out that the crisis has had an impact on the paper. Sales are down by about 10%. “According to our research, our readership numbers haven’t gone down. If four people on average read a copy of the paper in the past, today that number has risen to 5-6. There hasn’t been a loss of readers but our print run has suffered,” Hayk Gevorgyan says. Last year, “Haykakan Zhamanak” had an average print run of 10,000. Mr. Gevorgyan believes that it’s not correct to make a comparison with last year since 2008’s political scene was quite intense and ever-changing, which lead to a rise in demand. “Nevertheless, visual monitoring of the situation tells us that we could maintain a print run of 9,500-10,000, but it now stands at 8,000. Last year the paper had a net profit of 19 million drams. Of course, it will be less this year. There will be cut backs in staff and salaries only when profit margins hit zero or we fall into the red. In other words, staff salaries will be maintained at the expense of falling profit levels to the paper’s owners,” Hayk Gevorgyan says. Expenses at the printers have gone up and this, according to Mr. Gevorgyan, has placed a heavy strain on the daily papers. “Even if print costs were to go up by one mere dram that would mean we’d have to spend 8,000 drams more per day. In reality we’ve seen costs go up by 2-3 drams. U.S. dollar exchange rate fluctuations have also hurt us since the print houses buy the raw paper with dollars and it’s then transported here. Right now, our newspaper is still operating in the black. The print run will rise come autumn after the summer doldrums. Then too, how many copies we print also depends on the political climate,” Hayk Gevorgyan adds. Those papers with sponsors are the ones mostly impacted by the crisis, particularly Russian and Armenian language ones. “Zrutsakits Hayastani” is a high-quality publication in color. By Armenian standards the weekly pays its writers top rates. Surprisingly, the paper hasn’t suffered from the crisis fallout. Chief Editor Ashot Aghababyan says the paper is the brainchild of one individual who has complete control. “The owner has managed things in such a way for the paper to continue without any losses,” he says. We should add that the weekly’s sponsor is Levon Hayrapetyan, a businessman based in Russia. “18+” readers not affected by crisis Then too, there are publications that have been launched in the midst of the crisis. “18+”, a youth oriented weekly, was launched six months ago. Chief Editor Mikayel Aharonyan sates that the paper’s target audience is the youth market which buys the weekly, crisis or not. “There were print run fluctuations due to the crisis. It dropped a bit in March and April. But it stabilized and is now on the uptick. Generally, print runs rise during a crisis because people start reading papers more,” he says. Editor Aharonyan says the crisis has only affected advertising volume. The paper now relies on newsstand sales to get by. He asserts that when it comes to sales the paper is doing OK. Furthermore, he wants to increase the number of copies printed and drop the price from 200 drams to 150 or even 100. In contrast to “18+”, some papers have shut down since January, 2009. They have mostly been monthly magazines whose print costs are much greater. The paper is of higher quality and so is the color separation involved. Then too, such publications have relatively fewer readers. Monthly magazines make most of their money from advertising which has fallen off due to the crisis. The monthly magazine “For you” has yet to publish an issue this year. Director Artak Ghazaryan doesn’t merely see this as a result of the crisis even though it has had its negative effect. “We merely felt it was in the best interests of the magazine to temporarily suspend publication since circulation had been dropping. Revenues fell to a level where it didn’t make financial sense to continue publishing. Armenia’s small market is flooded with magazines of the same format. There’s a lack of diversity,” he argues. Editor Ghazaryan says that the magazine will probably start up again by September or October when, as he claims, the fallout from the crisis will have lessened.