The Kultuurileht Foundation may abandon the printing of some of its publications on paper in the coming years. Toomas Väljataga, the head of the foundation, said that some publications may cease to appear in print in two or three years.
Kultuurileht has 15 publications. Although the number of subscribers to print newspapers has increased over the past year, there are many more readers online. Väljataga noted that the first to disappear will likely be the publications with the fewest subscribers, such as Kunst.ee and the journal Keel ja Kirjandus.
According to last year's report, for example, the magazine Looming was read 25,000 times online and the newspaper Sirp 459,000 times. The content of the publications appears online slightly later than in print. Väljataga considers this reasonable, as the foundation earns revenue from print publications.
The Kultuurileht Sirp is published on Fridays. The newspaper is available by subscription and for individual purchase, but all content is also available online for free. Buying the print edition is therefore direct support to the editorial office. Kaarel Tarand, the editor-in-chief of Sirp, said that support from subscribers and buyers covers about 15-20 percent of the editorial costs.
The Sirp website is visited by 100,000 people every month. It is difficult to determine the number of readers of the print edition. Tarand said that the production of the print edition is becoming more expensive, but he does not consider abandoning it reasonable. Charging for the website would be a solution if necessary, but it would not be pleasant for the editorial office.
Tarand added that the money mainly goes to the authors of the newspaper. Authors receive a small fee for their difficult work. Tarand said that this situation needs to be improved so that authors would want to write and not see it as only socially beneficial.