Close-Up: Live Issue - Associated and Telegraph name new management.

Can Beatty and MacLennan turn the tide of competition for readers?

As Murdoch MacLennan and Kevin Beatty start their roles as the managing directors of the Telegraph Group and Associated Newspapers respectively, they'll be comforted by the fact their titles have suffered less than others at the hands of an increasingly fickle newspaper-buying public.

But they'll also know that, more than ever before, complacency could be fatal.

Over the past few years, the newspaper industry has been turned upside down. Cursed with ageing readerships, both the tabloids and qualities struggle to hold on to their younger readers in the face of competition from myriad other media.

The internet, 24-hour news channels, radio, interactive TV and the success of the morning freesheet Metro have eaten into the readerships of almost every national daily. According to the latest ABC circulation figures for the year ending July, only the Daily Star and The Independent managed to increase their share.

Trinity Mirror's titles continue to haemorrhage readers, with News International's The Sun and the News of the World faring no better.

The star performer among the broadsheets is undoubtedly The Independent, which launched a tabloid edition last September and has seen its circulation soar. For the year ending July 2003, the paper's readership grew by just under 50,000 copies to 228,396, a rise of more than 27 per cent.